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Vol. II, No. 2 


/«*■! 

January, 1917 


Smith College Studies 

in History 


JOHN SPENCER BASSETT 
SIDNEY BRADSHAW FAY 

Editors 


CORRESPONDENCE OF GEORGE BAN- 
CROFT AND JARED SPARKS, 

1823-1832 

ILLUSTRATING THE RELATION BETWEEN EDITOR AND 
REVIEWER IN THE ARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY 


Edited by JOHN SPENCER BASSETT 



NORTHAMPTON, MASS. 

Published Quarterly by the 
Department of History of Smith College 

Entered as second class matter December 14, 1915, at the postofflce at 
Northampton, Mass., under the act of August 24, 1912. 


SMITH COLLEGE STUDIES IN HISTORY 

JOHN SPENCER BASSETT 
SIDNEY BRADSHAW FAY 

EDITORS 

The Smith Cortege Studies in History is published quarterly, in 
October, January, April and July, by the Department of History of Smith 
College. The subscription price is fifty cents for single numbers, one 
dollar and a half for the year. Subscriptions and requests for exchanges 
should be addressed to Professor Sidney B. Fay, Northampton, Mass. 

The Smith College Studies in History aims primarily to afford a 
medium for the publication of studies in History and Government by 
investigators who have some relation to the College, either as faculty, 
alumnae, students or friends. In aims also to publish from time to time 
brief notes in the field of History and Government which may be of 
special interest to alumnae of Smith College and to others interested in 
the higher education of women. Contributions of studies or notes which 
promise to further either of these aims will be welcomed, and should be 
addressed to Professor John S. Bassett, Northampton, Mass. 


SMITH COLLEGE STUDIES IN HISTORY 

VOL. I 

No. 1. “An Introduction to the History oe Connecticut as a 

Manufacturing State” Grace Pierpont Fuller 

Nos. 2, 3. “The Operation of the Freedmen’s Bureau in South 

Carolina” Laura Josephine Webster 

No. 4. “Women’s Suffrage in New Jersey, 1790-1807” 

Edward Raymond Turner 

“The Cherokee Negotiations of 1822-1823”. .A nnie Heloise Abel 

VOL. II 

No. 1. “The Hohenzollern Household and Administration in 

the Sixteenth Century” Sidney Bradshaw Fay 



Vol. II, No. 2 


January, 1917 


Smith College Studies 

in History 


JOHN SPENCER BASSETT 
SIDNEY BRADSHAW FAY 

Editors 


CORRESPONDENCE OF GEORGE BAN- 
CROFT AND JARED SPARKS, 

1823-1832 ’ 

ILLUSTRATING THE RELATION BETWEEN EDITOR AND 
REVIEWER IN THE EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY 


Edited by JOHN SPENCER BASSETT 


•> '1 c 

) > > 


NORTHAMPTON, MASS. 

Published Quarterly by the 
Department of History of Smith College 


L'7J 

■ 6 









• 

c 

0 

c 

c 




Correspondence of George Bancroft and 

Jared Sparks, 1823-32 

The following letters throw light upon the literary efforts of 
two prominent American historians of the past century. They 
also show what were some of the problems of an editor in the 
conduct of his journal. They may possibly serve the student 
who would understand the development of periodical literature 
or the history of the men who made history a prominent phase 
of literature less than a century ago. They are taken from two 
manuscript collections, too large to be published in their entirety, 
which are open to investigators. One, the Bancroft Manuscripts, 
is in the possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and 
the other, the Sparks Manuscripts, is preserved in the Library 
of Harvard University. The officers of each library have cour- 
teously given permission for their use in this connection. The 
letters directed to Bancroft are in the former collection and the 
letters directed to Sparks are in the latter. 

Of the two men who wrote them George Bancroft perhaps 
achieved the greater literary eminence. He was born in Wor- 
cester, Massachusetts, in 1800. He was brilliant as a student 
and distinguished himself in Phillips Academy, at Exeter, New 
Hampshire, and in Harvard College, where he graduated when 
seventeen years old. He was so promising that funds were raised 
by President Kirkland to send him abroad for study. In 1820 
he took the doctor’s degree at Gottingen, then studied at Berlin, 
and after a year’s travel returned to Harvard, where he became 
tutor in Greek. Though an excellent scholar, he was eccentric 
and impractical. He tried in vain to reform the curriculum and 
took his failure so seriously that he retired from Cambridge after 
a year to become a partner with Joseph Green Cogswell in the 
Round Hill School, which the two men established in North- 
ampton, Massachusetts, in 1823. The institution was modeled 
after a famous Swiss school and had some of the character- 
istics of the German gymnasium. Much attention was paid to 


68 


Smith College Studies in History 


the individual, and the boys were carried forward as rapidly as 
they severally were able to advance. The school attracted atten- 
tion from Georgia to Maine and had a short period of prosperity. 
It finally failed because it was not adjusted to the educational 
system of the country and because it was not conducted in a 
practical manner. 

Here Bancroft taught until 1831. He was not made for a 
pedagogue. Although he knew his subjects well and did not 
trifle with the opportunity before him, he had not the power of 
reiteration necessary to drive learning into the head of the 
average boy. His best students learned much : the others played 
with their master. Meanwhile, Bancroft drifted into literature. 
The quiet natural beauty of Northampton stimulated his taste 
in that direction. He read widely and having literary initiative 
in no small degree, he turned naturally to the production of 
books. At last he threw aside the role of teacher and devoted 
himself to letters. In making the transition his connection with 
the North American Review was a leading influence. It served 
to train his power of literary expression, to develop his taste, 
and to stimulate his confidence in himself as a writer. 

This periodical was established in Boston in 1815, chiefly 
through the efforts of William Tudor, a lawyer who had a true 
and persistent interest in history. It was at first owned and 
conducted by a small group of men, each of whom was sup- 
posed to contribute articles. As often happens in such enter- 
prises, two or three of the partners wrote most of the matter 
that was printed. The years brought progress, and it was soon 
evident that the active contributors were building up a piece 
of property in which the inactive partners would have equal 
benefit with their industrious colleagues. It was an impossible 
situation and could not last. 

The man who brought it into sound and orderly condition 
was Jared Sparks. Born in Willington, Connecticut, in 1789, 
he spent his early life in poverty. His education was obtained 
in the village school, but he showed such great ability that when 
still a boy he was a schoolteacher at eight dollars a month, work- 


Correspondence oe Bancroft and Sparks 


69 


in g as a carpenter when the school did not run. He attracted 
the attention of the village minister, who undertook to teach 
him Latin. At the end of eight weeks the boy was reading 
Virgil at the rate of a hundred lines a day. Friends now were 
found and a fund was raised by which Sparks went to Phillips 
Academy, at Exeter, and later to Harvard, where he graduated 
in 1815. Although several years older than most of his class- 
mates, he was popular with them, and through his long life in 
Boston he received great help and encouragement from some of 
them in that city. He also won the confidence of the faculty. 
President Kirkland used to say that Jared Sparks was “ a man 
and a half.” 

At that time the Unitarian movement was strong at Har- 
vard and Sparks came under its influence. He decided to enter 
its ministry and was received as a most promising laborer in the 
cause. In 1819 he accepted a call to the newly established 
church in Baltimore. It was thought that he would carry the 
faith into the South, where the field was considered promising. 
The hope proved unfounded. Sparks preached acceptably to 
the church in Baltimore and he was popular in the city, but he 
did not extend the influence of Unitarianism in the surrounding 
country, and in 1823 he resigned the pastorate and retired from 
the ministry. 

Returning to Boston he found that the partners would sell 
the North American Review. He made the purchase, partly 
with borrowed money, and carried into the management of the 
enterprise so much business and editorial ability that the period- 
ical gained subscribers and influence rapidly. It was evident that 
the United States at last had a review worthy of comparison with 
the leading reviews of Great Britain. When he retired from the 
editorship in 1830 Sparks received $9,100 more than he had 
given for the property. Considering the times it was a very 
satisfactory result of his venture. 

It is likely that Bancroft and Sparks became acquainted at 
Harvard, since the first and second years of the one coincided 
with the third and fourth years of the other. Bancroft was 


70 


Smith College: Studies in History 


just settling in Northampton when the new editor of the Review 
took up his duties. A short time previously he had written an 
article for Edward Everett, then editor, on Schiller’s minor 
poems, and it was published in October, 1823. It was a sympa- 
thetic essay, as was to be expected from a youth full of the 
German spirit. In it were Bancroft’s own translations of sev- 
eral of Schiller’s short poems, slight things for which we can 
find but little admiration. At this period of his life Bancroft 
dabbled in poetry on his own account, and in the preceding year 
he had published a thin volume of verse. 

Shortly after the North American changed hands Bancroft 
offered to contribute other articles, and Sparks accepted the 
offer. It is at this point that the letters begin which I am able 
to publish. They relate to a series of articles running through 
several years.* They are given without emendation, and with 
only those notes which seem necessary to make the sense clear. 
The attempt is made to reproduce the letters exactly, without 
improving the evident results of carelessness. It is worth some- 
thing to see what the epistolary style of our grandfathers was 
really like. Bancroft’s handwriting is sometimes difficult. 

BANCROFT TO SPARKS 

5 November, 1823, Northampton. 

Dear Sir, Buttman’s Greek Grammar has been more than a 
year before the American public, and the American journals have 
not noticed it. I have wished to write an article on the subject, 

* Mr. William Cushing in his “Index to the North American Review” 
gives the following list of articles contributed by Bancroft to that periodi- 
cal while Sparks was editor: Buttman’s Greek Grammar, XVIII, 99; 
Jacobs’s Greek Reader, XVIII, 280; Somerville’s Letters on France, XIX, 
50; Value of Classical Learning, XIX, 125; Life and Genius of Goethe, 
XIX, 203; Writings of Herder, XX, 138; Classical Learning, XXIII, 142; 
Greek Lexicography, XXIV, 142; Von Dohm’s Memoirs, XXVI, 285; 
Saxe-Weimar’s Travels in America, XXVIII, 226; and Joseph II of 
Austria, XXXI, 1. From evidence in the letters now published it is evident 
that Bancroft also wrote a notice of J. E. Worcester, Elements of 
Geography, 1824, and Sketches of the Earth and its Inhabitants, 2 vols., 
1823, published in the Review, XIX, 258 — July, 1824. 


Correspondence oe Bancroft and Sparks 


71 


but have been deterred because Mr. E. was the editor of the 
N. A. R. 1 Now that he has added Mr. Jacob’s Greek reader 
I should like very much to say a few words in commendation of 
these excellent school-books, if a place in your journal can be 
spared for that purpose. If you think the matter worth notic- 
ing, I wish you would let me hear from you, as to the time, 
when an article should be forwarded for insertion in the next 
number. 

Permit me to commend myself to your kind remembrance. 
I hope, the distance of eighty or ninety miles only is not to 
deprive me altogether of the advantages, which this part of the 
country is to derive from your personal presence, and I should 
feel very happy, if I could in [any] way serve you or the good 
cause of letters. With sincere respect and regard Yours, 

1 The American edition of Buttman was translated by Edward Everett. 

SPARKS TO BANCROFT 

Boston, Nov. 8, 1823. 

My dear Sir, I have been about writing you for several days, 
and am glad now to have an opportunity of .thanking you for 
your kind offer in regard to Buttman. The N. A. R. will be 
much indebted to you for such an article, and you may make it 
as learned as you please ; only let all your learning be in very 
fair manuscript. I ought to have the article as soon as the 1st 
of December, and shall depend on it at farthest by the 5th, the 
sooner the better. Allow me to reciprocate your kind remem- 
brances, and to express a confidence, that you will lend me 
from time to time such aids as may be compatible with your 
duties. I shall rely much on your good disposition to “serve the 
cause of letters”, and shall expect this, if no other motive, will 
induce you to favour the N. A.' with an article as often as pos- 
sible. I should like a long, a learned, wise, and practical article 
on your mode of education, or such improvements of the old 
plan, as the schools in Germany and your own reflections have 


72 


Smith College Studies in History 


suggested. With sincere esteem I am sir Your affectionate 
friend, 

BANCROFT TO SPARKS 

Northampton, 12 Dec. 1823. 

My dear Sir, My review and your last letter must have crossed 
each other. Having been engaged on a translation from the 
German, it was not possible for me to get upon writing it till 
December, and I believe it must have reached you by the fourth 
of the month, which was within the time you allowed me. I made 
it short, because I thought in your first number you would have 
little room to spare, & because most of your readers will think 
six or eight pages on Greek grammar quite enough. 

I could easily write a plea for classical learning, and present 
the subject under what seems to me a new and just point of 
view. Next week on Saturday I shall be in Boston, and if you 
would leave a note at Mr. Searle’s in Fremont Court, where I 
can meet you for an hour on the next day morning or on Mon- 
day I will explain to you my notions, and be happy to hear of 
your views and wishes, which if I can meet, I shall be happy 
Yours truly, 


BANCROFT TO SPARKS 

My dear Sir, As a friend is going to Boston tomorrow I cannot 
but send you a few lines, which I wish you would answer after 
you shall have received an Article for the N. A. R. which I have 
nearly finished. I shall be able to send it you on Sunday next : 
I mean, it will then be in Boston. It is on classic learning: I 
have endeavored to be clear and concise, and hope my notions 
will please you. So soon as you shall have decided, whether 
you print it next time or no, I wish you would inform me. I 
remember you used to own Klopstock’s Messiah. Do you own 
his odes also? Accept my best regards and best wishes. Yours 
sincerely, 

26 January, Northampton. 


Correspondence of Bancroft and Sparks 


73 


[P. S.] I have a copy of Worcester's Sketches. Shall I 
send two pages upon them? How much would it cost to print 
an edition of 800 copies of a work just like A. H. Everett on 
Population? I mean, printed just in that manner and of the 
same number of pages. Pray remember me to Mr. W. H. Eliot. 

SPARKS TO BANCROFT 


Boston, Feb. 1, 1824. 

My dear sir, I am sorry it will not be in my power to put your 
article on classical studies in the present number. The truth is, 
I have been obliged to write more myself than I intended, in 
order to keep our press in motion, as we had no other work, 
and I had engaged no articles till Feb. 1st. By a calculation 
which I have just now made since receiving your letter, I find 
that I have made an absolute engagement for more articles, than 
the number will hold, and must put over one of my own, which 
is nearly completed, till next time. I never anticipated such an 
evil, and have therefore been very free in soliciting, without 
looking to the end. The article on Jacobs, which you have sent, 
is so short, and at the same time so spirited, I should be glad 
to print it alone in the present number. Some of the old school 
here have expressed to me their apprehensions since your last 
article, that the North American is becoming too partial to the 
Germans, at the expense of our worthy brethren the English. 
One gentleman made bold to say to me, that the English had 
written as good Greek grammars as anybody, and that they 
ought at least to have a passing compliment. I told him I would 
give you the hint. With this view I return you the manuscript, 
hoping that if you can think of anything to say in praise of 
English Grecian elementary books, you will give them the pass- 
ing need of a paragraph or two. I should think it advisable 
also to print the note in the text. I sincerely hope you will 
approve this plan, and will permit this to be a separate article, 
and will send it by mail as soon as it is ready. I have calculated 


74 


Smith College Studies in History 


on a notice of Undine and shall be glad to have it soon, i. e., if 
you are sure the books will see the light before April. 

Mr. Worcester is printing a stereotype edition of his Geogra- 
phy. When that appears, I shall depend on you, in compliance 
with your kind offer, to make a notice of this work and his 
Sketches combined. By the first of May, therefore, let me rely 
on having from you: 1. Review on Classical Studies, 2. Review 
of Worcester. Why can you not tack your first review to Pot- 
ter’s Address? I do not remember seeing this notice in the N. 
A. If it has been, you can easily find some other book. Let 
me hear from you soon. Very truly yours, 

BANCROFT TO SPARKS 

Northampton, 9 Feb. 1824. 

My dear sir, I send you the little notice of Undine. In a letter, 
which I sent you some time since, I asked how much it would 
cost to print a work exactly like Mr. A. H. Everett’s on popula- 
tion, making an edition of 600 copies. I wish to know not 
merely the expense of printing but of binding in boards also. 

Mr. C[ogswell] and myself have finally made an arrange- 
ment, which will carry us to the banks of the North River. When 
we first undertook our business, we had several copies of the 
Prospectus stitched into the N. A. R. at the end. In case we 
think it best to announce publicly our place of abode, should 
you have any objection to appending our notice to the next num- 
ber after the manner of the advertisements in the English Re- 
views ? 

I wish you would return me the manuscript sent by Mr. 
Robbins, as you have no present use for it. I have been cheat- 
ing myself of my cares by making little translations from Goethe. 
Perhaps I had better correct and improve the article on classic 
learning, or perhaps in lieu of it get something ready for the 
ladies. Then in May you could chuse between an argument 
about Greek and a lighter article. If you know of any direct 
opportunity to send me the MS pray do so. Otherwise if you 


Correspondence of Bancroft and Sparks 


75 


would leave it next week at C. Hilliard & Co. I will have it 
called for. Pray add to it the last No. of the N. A. R., for 
which I wish to become a subscriber ; and which I wish always 
in future to have sent me by mail. Truly yours, 

SPARKS TO BANCROFT 

Boston, Feb. 14, 1824. 

My dear sir, I have just reed, yours of the 9th inst. containing 
the first notice of Undine. The second notice, which you prefer, 
came two days ago. This shall be printed according to your re- 
quest. I have sold all that I owned of Klopstock. By a calcu- 
lation of the printers it will cost to print 750 copies exactly like 
the New Ideas , $169.39; and $15 for binding. This includes 
all expenses. In one letter you asked the amount for 800, and 
in the other for 600. You know the cheapest estimate is al- 
ways made out by tokens , each token being 250 sheets. This 
is the way the printers work, and it will cost no more, except 
for the paper and binding, for 750 than for 600; and it will 
cost the same for 800 as for 1000. There will always be a saving, 
therefore, by measuring an edition by two hundred and fifties. 

We will stick in the notice you mention ; at all events in such 
numbers as do not go by mail, and where the subscribers can 
have no cause of complaint by increase of postage. A parcel 
containing the MS. and a copy of the N. A. is left for you at 
C. H. & Co., 1 as you direct. The N. A. subscription for you 
is entered for Northampton. Give notice if you wish it changed. 
I am glad you go on with translations. Please always to num- 
ber each page of MS. for printing. It will prevent mistake. 
Yours truly, 

1 Cumming, Hilliard & Co., Booksellers. 


SPARKS TO BANCROFT 

Boston, March 25, 1824. 

My dear Sir, Will you review Mr. Somerville's book on France? 
It contains about 400 pages, and goes over so large a field that 


76 


Smith College Studies in History 


I think you can make a kind of analysis of it, and throw in such 
hints as occur to you, with out much labor. Besides, it may be 
that you have things in your mind about France, which you wish 
to unburden. If so, this affords a good opportunity. The work 
is not put together with much tact, but it contains a great deal 
of knowledge, and some good thoughts. I should be glad to 
have it dealt kindly with, as the author has literary merits. He 
is a young man of fortune, who takes to books wholly for 
amusement; and moreover, an original work of 400 pages, pub- 
lished in Baltimore, if it has anything to commend it, ought to 
be favorably noticed. It is a rare thing for so big a book on 
general literary and historical topics to appear at the South. 
Please to write very shortly, and let me know whether you will 
do it. The article should be ready by May 1st. Tell me how 
I shall send the volume to you. I expect from you the notice of 
Worcesters Sketches and Geography and hope to receive it by 
May 1st. Your article of Germany poetry, I shall depend on 
for the Oct. No. and wish it to be ready by the first of August. 
With sincere regards I am yours very truly, 

P. S. Prof. Everett has written a review of Heeren, which is 
printed. You have doubtless heard of his grand project of an 
Annual Register. The prospectus will be at the end of the N. 
A. R. for April. 

BANCROFT TO SPARKS 

Northampton, 26 March, 1824. 

My dear sir, I have yours of the 25th, and in reply have only to 
say, that I will make the article you speak of with pleasure and 
in the spirit of Xn. philanthropy. If the author tortures [ ?] to 
books for the love of them he has my heart. 

I hold myself ready to review Worcester’s books, and de- 
sire to do so. But I have not yet received his geography. If it 
be out will you see that it is sent to me? Send me a line saying 
about how many pages you can allow me for the one and the 
other article. In speaking of the geographical works I should 


Correspondence of Bancroft and Sparks 


77 


say but a few words respecting the excellent character of the 
books, and then make some remarks; 1. on the manner of teach- 
ing geography, and next on the relation, in which such studies 
stand to those which require more active exertion of the mind 
on the part of the learner. 

The article I sent you on classic literature needs curtailing, 
and a plainer style. I purpose to change it accordingly, and to 
make a little article of it for some No. On Goethe I am serious- 
ly employed, and hope to give some translations, which shall 
at least find their way into the albums of the ladies. At the new 
political journal I am amazed. I dreamed of no such thing. 
Yet it might have been expected. 

If you get this in season to send Somerville by the next bag- 
gage waggon do so. Otherwise let it come by the Northampton 
stage on Wednesday. The Stage leaves Boston on Wednesday 
at two o'clock in the morning. I am anxious to see the new 
number. Perhaps you can enclose it at the same time. If not I 
shall expect it by Friday's mail. I hope to see you in Boston 
in May. Truly and with all respect and regard Yours, 

SPARKS TO BANCROFT 

* 

Boston, March 31, 1824. 

My dear Sir, According to your directions I have put the 
volume of Mr. Somerville's into the Northampton stage this 
morning. I should suppose that from 10 to 15 pages would do, 
but you may write as much as you please. Make a few of the 
best extracts. You will find a very ambitious, and unformed 
style occasionally; and the general getting up of the book indi- 
cates an unpractised hand ; but there is much historical knowl- 
edge and some good thoughts, and I should like to have the 
author dealt gently with, although not extravagantly praised. I 
think you can let some parts of the book speak well for themslves ; 
You can make a sort of analysis of things, and throw in such 
reflections as occur. I will see that you have a copy of Wor- 
cester. Your notions of the topic are good. Please let me have 


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both articles in the first week in May. Go on with Goethe. The 
N. A. R. has been kept back by various accidents. It will ap- 
pear on the 5th or 6th of April. I start for the South in a week 
to be absent a month. Very truly yours, 

SPARKS TO BANCROFT 

Boston, April 3, 1824. 

My dear sir, In my letter three or four days ago, I forgot to 
say, that I have a small book just published on which you can 
engraft your review concerning the study of the classics. It 
is entitled a “Course of study preparatory to the Bar and the 
Senate.” It is by Mr. Watterson, Librarian of Congress, and 
has some merit. It goes into the general subject of education, 
and will afford you an opportunity of extending your remarks on 
collateral subjects. I will send it to you in May. Yours very 
truly, 


BANCROFT TO SPARKS 

31 [,wc] June, 1824, Northampton. 

Dear Sir, At various times I have forwarded you the article 
on Worcester, and the residue of the article on Watterson. 1 Pray 
remember my desire to have the sheets sent me before they appear. 
I repeat: reject that on Worcester if you will, & write yourself a 
short general one of praise without vituperation. Or print what 
I have been compelled to say. You will see Mr. Greenwood. 
Speak of me as of one who has long cherished a regard for him, 
though he may have returned but little of it. He has a sermon 
of mine on Poverty. It has a peculiar interest for me and prob- 
ably for no one else. lie has the only copy of it. Ask it of him, 
I pray you, and keep it for me. 

What can you say of your Spanish teacher at Baltimore? 
Think you we could get him at Round Hill ? And for how 


1 Probably refers to George Watterston’s “Course of Study Preparatory 
to the Bar and Senate/’ 1824. The review was not published by Sparks. 


Correspondence of Bancroft and Sparks 


79 


much ? And is he the man for us ? These questions I wish you 
would answer at your early leisure, and say nothing about it to 
others. We have already a Castilian, who is to arrive this week, 
but we have no continuing arrangement with him. Goethe shall 
be done soon. I have the ideas all warm in my head but must 
let them ferment a little more, that I may write coolly and judic- 
iously. Best regards to William and Margaret. 2 I had a happy 
time under their roof. Remember me yourself with good will. 
You know what interests you will have an interest for me. 
Truly yours, 

2 William H. Eliot and his wife, of Beacon Street, Boston. 

SPARKS TO BANCROFT 

Boston, June 21, 1824. 

My dear sir, The pieces on Watterson and Worcester came safe 
to hand. Worcester I have cut off a good deal, and made a short 
review for the miscellaneous head. I have added a word or two 
of praise, just to take off the edge of your sharp criticism, 
though I have altered your remarks on this point very little. 
In some respects the sketches certainly show a great deficiency 
of judgment. Go on with Goethe. Send it as soon as it is well 
matured and finished. If it comes in time it will be the first 
article in the number. I shall see Greenwood probably in three 
weeks, and will remember the sermon on poverty. By the way, 
what heart had you to write on so ungracious a subject? Two 
days ago Greenwood’s answer was received at the New South, 
in which he declined accepting the invitation. 

Cubi, the Spanish teacher at Baltimore, is so much employed, 
that he will hardly be induced to come away. He resigned his 
professorship at St Mary’s College, which gave him $1000 a 
year, for the sake of giving himself to private pupils. I gave 
him $1 a lesson. He has a passion for writing Spanish Dic- 
tionaries, Grammars, and school books for the South American 
market. I do not think he succeeds remarkably well in his book 
making, but he is an excellent teacher, and his hands are com- 


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pletely full. There were three constitutional editors came to 
Baltimore from Spain last year, destitute, but whether they have 
fled I know not. Yours very truly, 

In Press by Cummings, Hilliard & Co., Greek Grammar of 
Philip Buttman abridged for the use of beginners. Pray insert 
the above in its place. 


BANCROFT TO SPARKS 

Northampton, 10 July, 1824. 

My dear sir, I sent you an article on Goethe by my sister, who 
left me last Saturday. She will be in Boston this week, and if 
you will call at Mr. Gardner Chandler’s, head of the Mall, in 
Boyleston St. on Saturday of this week at 1, or at half past 
three o’clock you will receive it by demanding it. You will per- 
ceive on reading it, that it has cost me much time in the making. 
I wish to hear from you, before you print it, your candid opinion 
upon it. You must not make any alterations or omissions with- 
out consulting me. I have only to repeat, I wish you to write 
me, so soon as you shall have read it, and before you print it. 
I have a request or two to make. Have you printed either of the 
articles I sent you? If so, I take it a little unkind of you, that 
you have paid no attention to my request to have a copy of the 
sheets sent me immediately after the printing. The request 
seemed to me a trifling one, and a very proper one also. Yours 
truly, 


BANCROFT TO SPARKS 

Dear sir, I have sent you Goethe already. Call at Mr. 
Gardner Chandler’s in Boyleston St., head of the Mall, and de- 
mand it of my sister next Saturday at 1 o’clock, or at half past 
three. I wanted to hear your opinion of the article before print- 
ing. If you will go directly upon it, do so, but make no omis- 
sions, nor alterations, except grammar and good sense require 
it. I have written with great care, will be personally responsible 
for every word of the article, and also for the selections. I wish 


Correspondence oe Bancroet and Sparks 


81 


you would have from 25 to fifty — say fifty — extra copies of the 
article struk of at my expense in a pamphlet form. I wish to 
send them to Germany. Let me have your opinion candidly, se- 
verely expressed, as soon as you shall have read it. Yours in 
truth 

Monday, 12 July, 1824. 

P. S. Do not forget to send me by mail a copy of the article 
as soon as it shall be printed. This is in answer to yours by 
Wallenstein. My letter of yesterday you will not heed. Many 
thanks to you for the Review. In great haste Yours— Come 
up and make us a visit 

sparks to bancroet 

Boston, July 20, 1824. 

My dear Sir, I have read your article, and am much pleased 
with its general tone, criticisms, and execution. I see nothing 
that needs be omitted, or that wants altering, unless it be here 
and there a phrase. The frequent recurrence of such words as 
“emotions, love, afifection, sympathy, sensation, feeling” carried 
you sometimes into more soft abstractions, than is fully consist- 
ent with the dignity of your subject. But this is not often. The 
translations are many of them beautiful, and will be read with 
great appreciation. For my own part I am particularly pleased 
with the “Count” and the “Fable.” In the address to the god- 
dess there is a line which you must contrive to alter : 

“He hath told them every one 
And he loves the simpleton ” 

Simpleton is never used except in a silly or foolish sense, and 
such you do not intend it. In the Angler also are two awkward 
words. 

“And rustling from the opening flood 
An oozy maid upsprung.” 

Rustling will do, but it is not good ; and an oozy maid presents 
an image not at all to my taste. I see you have put in the Bay 


2 


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a deer, but this I believe we agreed would hardly answer for our 
state of society. I should say the same of the Dance of the 
Dead, though for a different reason. These two pieces I should 
think it best not to print. They have no doubt cost you much 
labor in translating, especially the first, which seems to me to be 
done with great skill and spirit ; but in all such cases we must 
look to the effect, and be guided by that. If you correct the above 
lines, I wish you would send them as soon as you can ; and also 
the title entire , both in German and English of Goethe’s works, 
place, date, no. of vols., &c, that we may begin the matter in 
proper form: I have desired Mr. Ticknor to read the article 
before it goes, that he may suggest to you whatever occurs to 
him. 

You complain in your letter that I did not send you “immedi- 
ately” copies of your pieces as soon as thrown from the press, 
and say that “the request seemed to you a trifling one, and a very 
proper one also.” Now as to the request I allow that in itself 
it is sufficiently “trifling and proper,” but that it must on all oc- 
casions be complied with immediately I don’t think either one or 
the other. In the first place, it is not very “proper” to allow any 
part of the work to go from the office till the whole is published, 
and in the second place, if every writer were to make the same 
request, it would be no “trifling” thing for me to attend to this 
matter, and see that every proof was duly put into the mail. It 
will give me pleasure always to furnish you with a copy as you 
desire, but I cannot promise to keep it in perpetual recollection, 
nor even then to send it before the work is published. And per- 
haps after all I may sometimes forget it, and then you will only 
have to send a line to the publisher telling him what signatures 
you want, and he will forward them immediately. I shall take 
care that 50 copies of Goethe are printed separately as you desire, 
and put in as handsome a way as they can be done. I have had 
a partial negotiation with Mr. and Mrs. Ticknor to visit North- 
ampton while they are there; but on the whole I must deny myself 
that pleasure till some more favored opportunity. With much 
esteem, Your sincere friend, 


Correspondence oe Bancroft and Sparks 


83 


BANCROFT TO SPARKS 

Northampton, 29 July, [1824]. 

Dear Sir, Mr. Ticknor brings me yours of July 20. I am glad 
you like the Fable. Preach contentment to women and children. 
I like its moral. It is true philosophy. “Simpleton,” I cannot 
change this moment. Will do it in the postcript. “Rustling” is 
literal from the German — see Postcript. The Brigadier is the 
best piece of the whole, translated with most care and labor. I 
have read it to two ministers, and two men of feeling; and they 
liked it, one and all. It cost me a fortnight to fix the lines. I 
submit to your judgment. It is against my own. The ballad would 
be popular. But no matter. Cut it out. Cut it out by all means. 
It was the minister’s simplicity that prevented them from under- 
standing it : no such thing. The sentence of death is pronounced 
on the dance of the dead. At least it is not to see the light in the 
N. A. R. Strike out , All that is sentimental. I rely much on 
your judgment to befriend me. A man, who writes poetry or 
about it may easily make himself ridiculous. In connecting the 
passages do not use the phrase we. My own personality glim- 
mers through every page of the review, but nowhere have I said 
we. I am particular about this for divers reasons. 

I am not such a child, as to cry for not knowing my way. 
You need not send me the proofs at all. I could argue the point 
with you tho’, for at any rate, you have no security but in the 
honor of the writers, that they will not publish their articles be- 
fore you. They have, or may have a written copy, and with that 
they can do any harm to be apprehended — Ever yours in sin- 
cerity, 

[P. S.] 

1. Goethe’s Werke. 20 Bande. Stuttgart und Tubingen: 
In der J. G. Cotta’schen Buchhandlung, 1815-1819. 
Goethe’s Works. 20 vols. Stuttgart and Tubingen. 
Published by J. G. Cotta, 1815-1819. 

I could send you more titles, and an account of a controversy 


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just waged in Germany about his character, or give you a separ- 
ate article of four or five pages upon it. 

Bright with the waters of the flood, 

A glittering maid upsprung. 

For to her and her alone 
All his secret whims are known 
And in all her faults despite 
Is the maid her sire’s delight. 

Chuse for yourself. I commend myself to your friendship, and 
hope to meet you in October. As you omit some pieces, save and 
return me the manuscript by your convenient opportunity. 

SPARKS TO BANCROFT 

Boston, Sept. 6, 1824. 

My dear G. B. I have a book for you to review. It is a “Journal 
of a Tour in Italy, by an American”; 468 pages, and has been out 
3 or 4 months. Perhaps you have seen it. At all events it tells of 
things with which you must be acquainted, and will give you an 
opportunity of saying what you please about Italy. I shall keep 
it till you come down in October. The review of Somerville was 
much liked, and I hope you will never enjoin on me another 
secret. Mr. Ticknor I am glad to say has propounded the matter 
openly, with your consent. Your Goethe Review will be printed 
in a separate pamphlet in as handsome a manner as we can do it 
at the N. A. R. press. The 50 copies will be ready for you when 
you arrive. I had the pleasure of being introduced to a lady 
from Northampton, a friend of yours, two or three evenings ago. 
Very truly yours, 


BANCROFT TO SPARKS 

Northampton, 13 Sept. [1824]. 

My dear Sir : I have nearly finished an article on Discipline, i. e., 
on the proper manner of managing boys. I have written plainly 


Correspondence of Bancroft and Sparks 


85 


and practically, and confined myself strictly to my subject. If 
you should like it for the next N. A. R., it is at your service, and 
will interest whoever is interested in our institution. It may 
be about 30 pages long. If you have room for it I will bring it 
you in October, and we can read and prepare it for the press at 
that time. It is very, very soberly written. 

Touching Italy, I am afraid of myself on such a subject. To 
treat of politics is out of the question. Italian politics are easily 
explained. A hard despotism overwhelms the nation. But the 
arts, Raphael, the middle ages, Byron who was at Pisa, the outline 
of Italian scenery, these are topics worth thinking. Pray, if the 
book be in boards, send it to me by the first stage with a letter 
saying if you will have a little gossip, &c, &c., and how much room 
you have to spare, and in October I will tell you all about it, 
whether I can write upon [it], & what I can say. Ever & in sin- 
cerity — Yours 

Am I a lady’s man? If my Goethe Review does not settle 
that point, I may as well go hang myself, or put on the weeds of 
a hermit. If you conclude to receive (always under the condition 
that on reading it you find it will suit your purpose) the Edu- 
cation Article, let me know it forthwith, and if [satisfactory] it 
can be printed in the first fortnight of October, while I am in 
Boston. In those few days I want to see a great deal of you, 
& talk with you much. You must let me know where you dine, 
and when you are going to walk, that I may see you much and 
not interrupt you. 


SPARKS TO BANCROFT 

Boston, Sept. 16, 1824. 

Dear Sir, By the stage of this day I send you the book of 
travels as you desire. By the leaves not being cut, you will see 
that I have read very little in it. What I have read I have liked, 
though there is a marvellous dull kind of air about the book. I 
suspect the author meant no harm, and had written as well as 
he could ; but I should be ashamed to be caught criticising a book, 


86 


Smith Cottage: Studies in History 


which I have read so little. Take it in hand and do it justice; 
but do not get into any tantrums talking about Italian arts, 
scenery, and associations. Tell us of plain, entertaining, instruc- 
tive, and good things. As to your piece on managing boys, if you 
can enlighten the public on this subject, you can in no way be- 
come a greater benefactor. Few know anything about the mat- 
ter. I should be glad of the article for January . 1 

You have got some foolish notion in your head about “a lady’s 
man.” Keep it well in mind, that the true way to be a lady’s man, 
is to be a man’s man, — a man of firm, dignified, unwavering 
character, devoted to a noble, elevated purpose, and pursuing at 
all times a uniform, upright, determined, independent course, 
without yielding on the one hand too implicitly to the whims or 
opinions of others, and without disregarding on the other the 
counsel and good example of the wise and worthy. In other 
words, respect yourself, and deserve the respect of all others, 
and you will in the completest sense of the term be a lady’s man. 
In my mind, there is but one rule in the matter. The man, whom 
all the world respects for his virtues, his attainments, and his ele- 
vation of sentiment and character, is the man who of all others 
will acquire the greatest favor with the ladies, if by this criterion 
you mean to judge a lady’s man. To suppose otherwise would 
be to reflect on the discrimination and good sense of this fair 
half of our race. In short, the lady who is not more capti- 
vated with these traits in a man, than with the frippery of 
folly and ignorance, deserves not to be esteemed by any man, 
who is himself worthy of esteem. Let me beg of you, there- 
fore, not to associate any longer the idea of a lady’s man with 
poetry, sentiment, soft and killing things, the tinsel of butter- 
flies, the gossamer moonbeams, nor any such unsubstantial things. 
These are well in their places, but they have an amazingly small 
part in making up a true lady’s man. 

Bring down your piece on education. It is probable I shall 
want it for January, but this will in some degree depend on 
circumstances, as I must necessarily consider variety. Ten or 


1 It was not published in the North American Review. 


Correspondence oe Bancroft and Sparks 


87 


twelve pages will be enough on the book of travels. Yours 
very truly, 


BANCROFT TO SPARKS 1 

My dear Friend, I send you the article on Herder as you de- 
sired. It cannot be far from the desired length. As I have 
written it purely at your request, take it and do with it as you 
will. It will please me best in the form, in which it pleases you 
best. 

As to the book on Italy, I do not know how to say anything 
without saying a good deal, and you have no room, and I no 
leisure for that. A page or two might still be written : tho' the 
notice of works, which do not interest me, is a hard task for me, 
and one I am opposed to from principle. 

Some of the remarks which you made me gave me a good 
deal of pain. In writing for the N. A. R. I conceived myself in 
the pleasantest situation, laboring in a manner to oblige and 
serve a friend, quite as much as myself, and at the same time 
doing my little part towards disseminating a love of letters. To 
successful exertion of one's mind a consciousness of independ- 
ence is necessary. As a friend of yours, I might desire at all 
times to perform any literary labor, which my habits and pur- 
suits might have fitted me for. Wherever I express my own 
feelings and the results of my own thoughts, there must be no 
mind at work but my own. When you told me, that you 
should return unread, articles sent to you to be inserted un- 
changed, you did the same, as to tell me, according to my prin- 
ciples of action, not to send you any at all. I value the advice 
and the criticisms of friends, have been too often benefited by 
them to be ignorant of their worth. But to give up a production 
of my own to be accommodated to another's views, to have 
another's mind reign in it, is what I never can do. I value 
opinions, delicately formed, too much for that, and I value my- 
self too much for it also. 


1 Without date. Received Nov. 13, 1824. 


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Smith College Studies in History 


If I mistake not the character of the American public, there 
is no need of keeping back any truth from it. The public is willing 
to be shocked. Ask yourself, if a thing appears good to your 
own mind; and doubt not, the objections which may arise from 
the fear that this or the other will be offended, will prove ground- 
less ones. 

I have sometimes thought of relinquishing the career of let- 
ters. I could be very happy and very useful, if I would do it. 
I mean relinquish toiling for others. The perception of excel- 
lence in others, the love of communing with high minds Provi- 
dence in its mercy has conceded me — a compensation for a thou- 
sand woes, and my most valuable possession. 

Let me hear what you expect me to do with reference to the 
book on Italy. If you have room, still might something be done. 
I wish to know, what you think of my piece on Herder. I had 
not the books I needed. I have not satisfied myself. If you 
think it would do me discredit, do not print it. You have full 
liberty to change, add, or omit. In good faith and with real 
affection Yours, 


SPARKS TO BANCROFT 

Boston, Nov. 13, 1824. 

My dear Sir, You are a man after my own heart, willing to 
promise, and prompt to execute. The piece on Herder I like 
much. It will be in press in two days. You may let the book 
on Italy go by. It needs not be noticed. I am sorry you were 
troubled at any remarks of mine. The truth is, I thought you 
dwelt with quite too much pertinacity on a very little matter. 
I have never written myself for the N. A. when it was in other 
hands than my own, that my pieces was not more altered than 
yours. I thanked the editor and forgot it. I have hardly print- 
ed a piece since I had the book which has not been more altered 
than your Goethe article; and I have heard no complaint from 
any other individual. These things considered, I was doubtless 


Correspondence of Bancroft and Sparks 89 

too much excited with your talk to me and others. It was really 
a very slight matter at most. Three or 4 lines were omitted ; 
not a word, or at least a sentiment added. Allow no good was 
done ; what was the mighty harm ? It was not a thing to worry 
about, and more especially after a thing was done, that could 
not be undone. I say again, all these things considered, I was 
more moved than was necessary. But why remember these 
things? Submerge them under the waters of Lethe, there let 
them rest. 

I have another project 1 for you, which is to make an article 
on “Physical Education.” I send you two books, which you 
may review, and two MS. pamphlets of translation [illegible] 
by a person of this city, of all of which you can make such use 
as you please. I do not want speculations, so much as a brief 
and animated history of what has been done, and is now doing, 
with such philosophical reflections as may suggest themselves. 
These books I presume, (with such German books as you may 
have) will afford you all the materials, and it will only be neces- 
sary that they should be brought together in a proper shape. 
Suppose you have a few preliminary remarks on the gymnastic 
education of the ancients ; then a history of what has been done 
recently in Europe as detailed in these books ; then the present 
practices as to this point in Germany and Switzerland ; and lastly 
such reflections as occur in regard to introducing some similar 
system into this country. 

As the body and mind are assimilated so strongly to each 
other, it seems certain that any course of education, which gives 
health and vigor to the former, must quicken and enlarge the 
powers of the latter. But this is a wide field; explore it as you 
like, only remember, that so little is known in this country 
about gymnastic education, that historical details will be par- 
ticularly interesting to our readers. I send the books by the 
stage. Please let me know very shortly whether you will under- 
take, to have the article done by Feb. 1 — I should suppose it 
ought to be brought into 25 pages : perhaps 30, if you find 
yourself pressed. Very sincerely your friend, 


1 This project also came to naught. See below, p. 96. 


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BANCROFT TO SPARKS 

November 17, 1824, Northampton. 

My dear Sir, I have yours of Nov. 13. Also the books and 
MSS came safely to hand. I have as yet had no time to examine 
them. Physical Education is a subject, which I should not of 
myself be led to discuss. There are many others, to my mind 
more interesting and more familiar. Nevertheless the subject 
is known to me from books and observation, and I am willing 
and disposed to send you an article on it at the time and of the 
extent, which you suggest. 

The best is, to forget unpleasant things. Only it is also best 
for friends to understand each other. I know not how you can 
call the changes you made in the unfortunate article so trifling. 
For me they certainly were not trifling; for while I had been 
expecting to derive much pleasure from the appearance of it, 
I have felt only chagrin. And I cannot persuade myself, my 
disappointment is not well founded. Do you not know, you 
changed one assertion from a negative to a positive one, thereby 
, saying something, which I do not believe, & which makes the 
words at least unmeaning? And do you think, that when a 
man has written according to the strictest rules of rhetoric as 
far as he knows them, has consulted harmony and perspicuity 
in the structure and arrangement of his sentences, and has care- 
fully and after frequent deliberation selected his words and 
phrases, that he likes to see them erased, or supplemented by 
words which do not express his ideas? You altered, what you 
would not have altered, had you understood, why and in what 
spirit it was written. And the change in two cases out of three, 
though few, materially affect both the meaning and the style of 
the most labored parts. I say labored parts, and I am free to 
add, labored with the most success, and the most truth and 
nature. The matter is of little moment, only in so far as the 
whole article is of little moment, and my desire to be esteemed 
as a writer a childish vanity. 

I did not mean to have said so much. I will add, the omis- 


Correspondence of Bancroft and Sparks 


91 


sions you made in the article on classical learning were such, 
as to entitle you to my thanks for having made them. I am 
pleased to learn, the article on Herder is liked by you. 

Of the MSS, I shall make no sort of use, unless you tell me 
their author's name, and probably not then. It is rather an 
evil to have such things, unless one knows exactly with what 
persons one is dealing. I subject my promise to send you an 
essay on Gymnastics to one condition. I may think it best to 
send it you through a physician, who if he finds my notions 
false, will prevent me from exposing myself. 

In conclusion, you may feel sure of my never again troubling 
you or being troubled myself as has been. Whenever you may 
need, or desire my poor services, they will be given in a different 
manner, so that I shall not care, what alterations may be made. 
I shall write to please you, not to gratify myself. We will see, 
whether the love of praise, or the influence of friendship can 
furnish the best inspiration. In sincerity as ever Yours, 

BANCROFT TO SPARKS 

[Northampton] December 24 Christmas Eve., 1824. 

I lost no time after receiving yours of Nov. 13 in devoting 
my time and thoughts to the subject you proposed. I have 
turned over many books, and reflected much with myself. The 
connection between the body and the mind, and the consequent 
inference, that physical education derives its importance, not 
from its giving health to the body only, but from its direct coop- 
eration with moral education — this I intended for my first topic 
— I meant then to narrate the gymnastic exercises of the Greeks, 
and the plays of their school boys, and to pass from this to the 
history of modern gymnastics — The third topic should have 
been the practical application of these views to our country. I 
have collected all my materials for the first topic. Unluckily I 
do not own either Hippocrates or Galen, and know not whether 
Cabaniss 1 has yet published his work sur le Perfectionnement 
du genre humain. If he has I need his book. His great work 


Pierre Jean Georges Cabanis, a French physician and philosopher. 


92 


Smith College Studies in History 


Rapports du moral et du physique de l’homme I have. It is 
philosophical, and accurate. But to the point. When I con- 
sider the mass of papers lying on my table, I believe the first 
topic alone will occupy some 20 to 26 pages. What shall be 
done? I have given an account of temperaments, from 
Cabaniss, Richerand, Londe, 1 & some others. The subject is im- 
portant, and if I can judge, not without interest. It is for you 
to decide, whether : 

1. I shall finish this important topic, I speak of, as a review 

» 

by itself of twenty or thirty pages, or 2. go on, and add ten or 
fifteen more of history, and so make a review of forty-five 
pages, or 3. let my notions, reasonings, speculations, practical 
observations on the first topic be brought into the least possible 
compass, and the history then added concisely, — which third 
plan I do not much approve of — or 4. Discard my work already 
done, and sticking to the facts, write a new review. Will you 
decide, and answer me by return mail? 

It is Christmas Eve, and a glad occasion. The Roman is 
now passing from street to street, from illuminated church to 
church ; the Basilica of Santa Maria is filled with music almost 
heavenly; the faithful are rejoicing. I wish you all joy, suited 
to the occasion, & happiness always- 

1 Anthelme Balthasar Richerand, 1779-1840, and Charles Londe, 1795- 
1862, were French physicians who wrote about physical education. P. H. 
Clias, 1788-1854, a Swiss army officer, developed a noted system of phys- 
ical exercises. 


SPARKS TO BANCROFT 

Boston, Dec. 27, 1824. 

My dear Sir, Your letter contains hard questions, which it is 
impossible for me to answer, with my profound ignorance of the 
subject. My opinion is, that the facts of the case will be most 
interesting; i. e., the history of gymnastics. Suppose you have 
two articles, — one on “ Physical Education ” embracing your first 
topic, — the other on the Gymnastics of the Ancients and Mod- 


Correspondence of Bancroft and Sparks 


93 


erns,” embracing all your other topics. As to the length, I should 
think it a wise thing not to let either of them run over 20 pp. at 
most. Condensation is one of the highest merits of a good 
writer. Make it 40, and then reduce to 15 or 20. This as you 
like. How can anyone but a physician write on physical edu- 
cation? Take care not to lay yourself open to ye Esculapian 
tribe. You need not suggest any connection between your ar- 
ticles ; only put the most appropriate books at the head of each. 
Let one be ready for Apl — ye other for July. O. Everett has 
failed — I am now my own agent — and in the greatest confusion 
you can imagine. Very truly yours, 

BANCROFT TO SPARKS 

Jany. 8, 1825, Northampton. 

Dear Friend, I received yours late last night, send the books, 
all you wish noticed. Send them to be here Wednesday night, 
which you can do. You shall have the Article, as good as I can 
with fair industry and honest intention make, and if possible, 

15 Feb. & certainly the 20th, health & life continuing. 

Have you received what I wrote you upon temperaments? 
Do you like it? If you do, and have room, I wish it could come 
in this time. If not, it must wait. The bookfs] of Londe & Clias 
shall come to you by Monday's stage. So too the MSS. Send me 
the books again when you can ; and tell the man to sell or give 
them to me. I wish to own them. The MSS he may keep. 

Let me know forthwith in what tone you wish the article to . 
be written; to scold & find fault & tell the truth of a dull book, 
or mildly, charitably, & in a forgiving temper. Must I say no 
word of Redwood? Yours, as ever, 

P. S. I am trying to get time to write on education for the 
press. Will you do me a favor? Richardson & Lord propose 
publishing for me Jacobs's Latin Reader. Pray call at their book- 
store, & learn of them, if they accept my proposition. I demand 
and expect 10 per cent on the retail price, payable at the time 
of publication. 


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SPARKS TO BANCROET 

Boston, Jan. 15, 1825. 

My dear Sir, I waited to receive the books, which you said would 
come in last Monday’s stage. Nothing is heard from them. 
Will you send them immediately with a letter telling by what 
stage? With the general tone and bearing of your article on 
temperaments I am greatly pleased. I wish the physical de- 
scriptions omitted, and some parts altered, — have marked it, 
& made it ready to send you, but do not know whether the 
conveyance by stage is safe. Let me know & oblige Yours &c~ 

BANCROFT TO SPARKS 

[Northampton], 17 Jan. 1825. 

My dear Friend, The parcel containing the MSS and the two 
books really went last week Monday morning (the 10th) & 
must have reached Boston on Monday evening. It went in the 
Amherst line, of which you can hear at Wilde & Hosmer’s, Elm 
Street, or at the Exchange Coffee House, or at Col. Wilde’s 
Eastern Stage House, or J. T. Hathaway. It was directed to 
Rev. J. S. to be left at C. & N’s bookstore. 

I doubted whether it would reach you. You are not known 
to the stage drivers, and in Boston they do not have time to go 
about and deliver things. It is necessary to send to the stage 
office, when a thing is expected. That I can do at Northampton, 
& do always. Therefore whatever is left at Earl’s to be for- 
warded reaches me safely. Direct merely to me at Round Hill, 
Northampton. Our boys have made us known on the road, and 
we are in the order of sanctity with all tavern keepers & stage 
proprietors from here to Boston. Let me have* what you in- 
tend sending me on Friday evening. This letter will reach you 
Thursday morning. 

You ask me to write an article 30 or 50 pages long. I assent, 
and you neither send me the books, nor tell me if your desire 
has ceased. Let me know; for I do not leave my time unap- 


Correspondence of Bancroft and Sparks 


95 


propriated. I am glad you like the doctrine of temperaments. 
I have consulted the best authorities, and as to the physicians, 
I know of but one, who understands the subject; & that is 
D. Jackson. You once wrote me a long letter, and never but 
once. I live upon that ; but wish you could sometimes add at 
least a syllable of Christian salutation, or friendly information. 
You are all to laconic. Ever, 

To make the matter sure, I will write on the Way Bill of the 
same stage an account of this important parcel and request in 
my own name the stage proprietors to make search for and 
deliver it. 

SPARKS TO BANCROFT 

Boston, Jan. 20, 1825. 

Dear B. Who ever heard of the “Amherst line?” I sent every 
day to the Northampton stage. You must put a letter in the 
mail saying by what stage you send. I have marked in brackets 
such passages in the MS, as I wish to have omitted. One of 
your friends has read the piece, and agrees with me in thinking 
these parts had better be left out. Please return it very shortly, 
as I want it now for the press. As to the Novels, it did not 
occur to me that I have a long Review of Redwood for this 
no., and one review of novels is enough for one No. I shall 
want the article on American novels for next no, 1 I will send 
the books soon. I have no time to write long letters. I have 
much, much to do ; — agent, editor, &c, &c. The college question 
is discussing today, Judge Story speaking, and I suppose Mr. 
John Lowell. Nothing is likely to come of the matter, as I 
fear. The professors are to be heard in favor of their memorial 
next week, and it is supposed Everett will make a display. 
Yours truly, 

1 Another project that miscarried. 

SPARKS TO BANCROFT 

Boston, Feb. 17, 1825. 
Dear B. I return your article by Mrs. Lyman, who is kind 


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enough to take charge of the parcel. As you do not agree to the 
omissions I suggested, I cannot of course publish it. You seem 
not to have very correct notions of this matter of “judgment,” 
in regard to the N. A. Review. You say you “make it a rule to 
rely on your own judgment.” This is an excellent rule, — pre- 
cisely the rule which I adopt for myself, and which I must 
adhere to rigidly if I intend to have any comfort in my labors, 
or any consistency in my Review. Now this is not saying that 
my judgment is better than yours, or any other person's; but 
whether good or bad I must decide by this at least. It is not 
the merits of a piece alone of which I judge, but its adaptableness 
to the N. A. Review, and when objections exist in my own 
mind, whether these are well or ill founded, you must perceive 
at once that I ought to be influenced by these objections, and 
decide accordingly. 

In short, it is unnecessary to talk any more of this matter. 
I have made it a practice without a single exception to strike 
out of any article such parts, as I did not like ; and I have hardly 
printed an article in which I did not omit something, nor do I 
remember writing an article for the N. A. R. while it was in 
other hands from which some parts were not struck out. I add 
nothing without the consent of the author, but I omit in all 
cases where I think it ought to be done. You are the only 
person who has complained. E. Everett has now an article just 
going to press in which I have cancelled three sheets. He 
thinks them good, of course, but he makes no objection to their 
being omitted. Quae cum ita sint, I beg whenever you send 
anything hereafter, that you will make up your mind to send it 
on the same terms that all the other writers do, and wish you to 
understand distinctly, that I shall always omit what I do not 
like, as being the invariable rule by which I am guided in all 
cases. 

I have just received your very pleasant letter of the 13th 
instant, and am glad your time is so well filled up, because it is an 
evidence that you are both useful and happy. You are making 
a great figure with your school, and the nation will be indebted 


Correspondence of Bancroft and Sparks 97 

to you for many years. I hear so much of the beauties of 
Northampton in the summer, and the agreeable society among 
its inhabitants, that I think I shall make you a visit next sum- 
mer, and spend some days, if I can find good lodgings in your 
town. I will spend an hour with you in the interval of your 
labors, and at other times I will ramble about the country, go 
up the mountians, mineralize, botanize, and take romantic walks, 
and look at the blue sky, and white clouds, and green trees, and 
admire and enjoy the charms of nature. By that time the affairs 
of the N. A. will become so well organized that I can easily 
be absent for a few weeks, and I shall make a jaunt in some 
direction. I presume you will be with us in the spring vacation. 
The Ticknors came home yesterday after an absence of three 
months. You will have heard of the bustle we have had about 
college in the senate — Memorial, Story’s Report, &c. — Judge 
Jackson was chosen a member of the Corporation a week ago, 
and yesterday the board of overseers put a negative on the 
choice by 20 to 18! What this portends I know not, but the 
like was never known before. My heart sickens at the very 
name of college. Everybody seems wearied to death with hear- 
ing it harped upon so long, and all apparently to no purpose. 
Dr. Jackson liked your article on Temperaments. Very sin- 
cerely your friend, 


SPARKS TO BANCROFT 

Boston, March, 18, 1825. 

Dear B. The Latin Reader came duly to hand but too late to 
be noticed in the Apl. no. — Every form was printed before it 
arrived. 1 If you will send abundance of facts about your school, 
Mr. Ticknor promises to review the Latin Reader, and devote 
several pages to the marvellous doings, and brilliant promise 
of Round Hill. You can set forth all your principles of teach- 
ing, the advantages of your mode, &c, — and whatever else may 

1 Bancroft’s translation of Frederick Jacobs’s “Latin Reader” was re- 
viewed in XXI, 246-248, July, 1825. 


3 


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be thought important. The facts in the Literary Gazette I sup- 
pose will do, so far as they go. Mr. Ticknor says he will make 
from 8 to 12 pages. I wish you would forward the facts as 
soon as possible. Tell what you do, how you do it, and what you 
hope to effect. Shall the running title be “Classical School at 
Northampton,” or what? You print elegantly at Northampton. 
You must call it the “Round Hill Press.” Very truly yours, 

BANCROFT TO SPARKS 

Northampton, March 23, 1825. 

[See H. B. Adams, “Life and Writings of Jared Sparks,” 
I, 338.] 


BANCROFT TO SPARKS 

Northampton, August 27, 1825. 

My dear Sir, The last mail brought me yours of the 22, and 
I was glad to hear from you. You delivered the parcel of 
flowers promptly & well. I came very near receiving a reward, 
which to me would have been without price, though you pretend 
to scoff at the weaknesses of human nature & the gratification 
of them. I never promised Dr. Popkin, I would send to the 
N. A. R. an article on his edition. I shall be very happy to do 
it, if such be your desire and if it should promote your ends. 
Let me know if you desire an article on this subject at my hands, 
and if you do the result will show how far I like to meet your 
wishes. 

It is not well for us to receive boys of the age which you 
mention, unless they are remarkable for docility & love of learn- 
ing. Yet will you confirm to Mr. Appleton what I wrote him 
a few days since. He knows our condition and means of teach- 
ing. If he thinks it best for his boys to come to us, we will 
make no objections. We feel sensible of the regard he shows 
us, by being willing to entrust to us so important and responsible 
a charge. 


Correspondence oe Bancroft and Sparks 


99 


You will be pleased to learn that our plans are all prospered, 
and we may now hope to establish a place of education to con- 
tinue long after the earth shall rest on the ashes of the present 
generation. With best wishes for your happiness, Yours sin- 
cerely, 

P. S. An accidental lameness, occasion by a fall has made a 
miserable cripple of me for the last four weeks. The heavy 
hand of imprisonment and debility has been on me, but I am 
now able to move a little without crutches. 

SPARKS TO BANCROFT 

Boston, Aug. 29, 1825. 

Dear G. B. Your kind letter is before me. The Doctor did 
not say outright that he expected an account of his labors ; he 
only gave a broad hint ; whereupon I took the hint, and thereupon 
I did write to thee. I hope you will prepare such a matter as 
you think proper ; either for a short review among the formid- 
ables, or a notice in what Mr. Carter, of the Gazette, calls our 
“Stern Chaser.” I should think a Grecian, like the Doctor, 
should come into the former, if you can find enough to say on 
the subject; as doubtless you can, for when “Greek meets Greek” 
there can be no want of matter for work enough. I cannot get 
it into the October number, but should like to have it in the 
January number, and hope it will be ready in a month or two. 

You give me pleasure in saying that I discharged your floral 
commission in a satisfactory manner. Well indeed, may I be 
proud of having had the honor of taking charge of a dried blue 
flower from the river of the mountains to the main. You are a 
happy man to have all the smiles of nature beaming upon you 
from hill and dale, the expanse of bright waters and the blue 
sky. But how doubly happy to have the good fortune to pur- 
chase the radiance of “women’s smiles” with the stalk and 
petals of a withered plants? Ah, happy, happy man! Ascend 
the summit of Holyoke at earliest dawn and watch the first 
flower that unfolds its soft treasures to the rising sun, pluck 


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Smith College Studies in History 


the simple thing, press it in a book, which breathes living poetry 
from its pages; then fold it in beautiful white paper, with an 
ode plaintive as the song of the nightengale, but sweet as the 
tones of fairies’ music ; then send it to a fair lady, and be happy 
for a week. Where is the churl, that will be wretched, when 
happiness drops like dews of manna from the little flowers, and 
a purple hue can talk of sympathy, and revive associations, 
which linger in memory’s deep cells, and kindle up the fire of 
kindly feeling in every corner of the heart? Don’t you think 
I could be a poet? Ah, a most grave and potent poet. I was 
much gratified with my visit to Northampton, and owe you many 
thanks for the kind attentions you showed me there. I have 
heard with regret of your gymnastic accident. Take care that 
your gymnastics do not turn out to be gymcracks. Breaking a 
limb, or turning the joint of an ankle, is neither of them among 
the polite accomplishments. They may be dispensed with as 
branches of education even at Round Hill. I presume you do 
not set up for teaching the art of neck breaking. A man is safer 
on the ground than on a gallows, and he had better walk the 
pavement, than climb a ladder. 

Mr. Appleton has returned to Baltimore, and I wish you 
would write to him immediately that you will take his boys, 
and let him know how soon you will take them. The youngest 
is now in Boston. You will have no better boys. My rule is 
never to turn over a page in writing a letter. You see how 
egregiously I have violated my rule. Pardon this indiscretion, 
and believe me as ever Your friend & obt. servt. 

BANCROET TO SPARKS 

28 Sept. 1825, Northampton. 

) 

My dear Sir, I received last night the volume on Italy, & the 
very kind letter which accompanied it, & for which I sincerely 
thank you. The empire of imagination has not yet ceased in 
my mind, and it is good for me to be reminded of the nature of 
her government. Feeling conscious of this tendency, I habitu- 


Correspondence oe Bancroft and Sparks 


101 


ally am slow in forming a decision, and I believe you will find 
in what I have written no opinions which I need to retract, and 
very few extravagant expressions. For the rest there is nothing 
half so delightful to me in the moment of exertion, as the hope 
of thus being a useful citizen, of contributing in my humble 
sphere to disseminating the principles of justice, liberty, and 
learning. There is no man, who may not find a fit sphere for 
exertion, and if there are any, who can produce no result, it is 
because they err in judgment, or devote their powers to the 
wrong service. It is not necessary to have genius or vast erudi- 
tion, to be highminded and honored. Not every one can be 
blest with superior powers, and he, who has not been invited to 
Nature’s richest banquet, may yet cherish and respect her gift. 
There is no faculty I would more desire to possess in an emi- 
nent degree than cool, practical judgment. It is the result of 
careful observation and extensive experience ; but some men 
have it as if by instinct, and in doubtful cases are able to dis- 
cern what is just and prudent, and in new ones to foresee the 
probable results. 

With respect to Italy the subject presented itself to me as 
one, on which I could write with feeling, and I may add with 
learning and with deliberation. I speak particularly with respect 
to the arts. When in Italy I was unwearied in my endeavors to 
become acquainted with the works of every eminent master, & in 
connection with this object I made very extensive studies in the 
lives and characters of the painters, and the best criticisms 
on their works, less in architecture, but in sculpture again I was 
very careful at least to learn enough to justify to my own mind 
decided opinions on the relative merits of each of the modern 
artists. When you suggested the subject it occurred to me, that 
a rapid outline of the physical characteristics of the country, in 
connection with their influence in dividing the nation into parts 
and deciding the character of each part, some few remarks on the 
great political changes of the last four centuries, a few facts 
illustrative of the present government, an account of the spirit 
of the Catholic religion in a charitable view, with a lively and, 


102 


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if possible, picturesque description of its influence on manners 
and religious sentiments and public display, a defense of the 
Italian character, an allusion to the men of letters at Milan, an 
account of the living artists in Florence and Rome, a comparison 
of Thorwaldsen and Canova and my reasons for preferring 
the Dane to the Italian, some account of their most remarkable 
works from their own points of view (for these men, such was 
my fortune, have themselves taught me how to judge of their 
works). These are the topics on which I purposed to treat, and 
which I thought might be worked up into a sober, instructive, 
and yet interesting essay. My veneration for the genius of 
Raffaello would have led me to mention a few of his pictures, 
which are the least known. As Byron was in Italy & I saw 
him there, & heard him converse of his own life & his own 
works, I proposed to give an account, at the close, of the influ- 
ence which Italy had had in forming the minds of so many, 
Addison, Gibbon, Winckelman, Mengs, Poussin, & others, & 
so to have touched on Byron’s 4th canto of Childe Harold, 
& Madame de Stacks Corinna. These are all matters on which 
I have observed, read, and reflected much ; yet I doubted whether 
it was best to write about them; now I am not in doubt; to pro- 
duce an effect let every man limit his efforts in proportion to his 
powers. Those who would be willing to read what I may write, 
desire to see me rather on some topic of education. If you like 
what is plain and practical, without tinsel, without any high 
polish of style, but plain reasoning for common parents, you 
will like what I have written on Discipline. I shall bring it 
you. As to the book on Italy I will let you know the first half 
hour of my being with you whether I can review it at all. I 
somewhat doubt. I never will draw directly on my own feelings 
to write anything interesting for the public. 

Do not think I have ever expected to gain anything that is 
desirable by any other means than by persevering industry in a 
good cause. I may waver in my views, how I may most effectu- 
ally accomplish, what I have received life for; but never in my 
admiration of virtue, my reverence for religion, my love of 


Correspondence oe Bancroet and Sparks 


103 


liberty, my desire to promote the welfare and honor of my coun- 
try. It is little enough I can do at the best, & therefore requires 
so much the more thought how that little may be made most 
valuable. 

Will you make my kindest regards to Mr. [Green] wood, 1 
if he still remembers me. I cannot but promise myself pleasure 
in seeing him again, and so happy as I am glad to learn he is. 
Present me kindly at Mrs. Margaret Eliot's. 2 I shall be at Mr. 
Ticknor’s table to dine the 1st of October — if it be possible. Yet 
the matter is somewhat doubtful. Ever in sincerity and affect- 
tionate regard, Yours, 

1 Rev. F. B. W. Greenwood, a man of much spirit. 

2 Wife of Wm. H. Eliot. 

bancroet to sparks 

Northampton, 14 Nov. 1825. 

I sat down this evening and got my books round me for 
quiet work, when a parcel was brought me containing so much 
that was pleasant, reviving so many old recollections, and making 
me compare with such painful interest the past and the present 
with future hopes, that I cannot find courage to go to dull labor 
now, and so as I have long wished to send you a word or two 
I will do it now that I have been reminded of other, far distant 
friends. The letter which you sent me not long before October 
remained unanswered, solely because I expected to see you so 
soon, and could speak with you as I hoped freely, in the spirit 
of affection, candor, and justice. I need not say to you, that any 
and all expressions of regard for me on your part are very 
grateful. It has become principle with me to court no man’s 
friendship, but I value the esteem and affection of the intelligent 
beyond anything, and as far as my narrow resources extend, am 
never tardy in acknowledging, valuing, and requiting them. 
During my stay in Boston I sought you daily though in vain, 
till you left the city. As to the trifle of the Graec. Maj. I owe 
it to myself to say, that I wrote a notice for Carter at his re- 


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quest made to me nearly a year ago. The notice lay in Carter’s 
hands some weeks, months I believe, before he printed it. I will 
very cheerfully make a little notice for you of them if you wish; 
and if not as I have made one, you had better have one made, 
for Dr. (Popkin) deserves the honor. I do myself give little 
time except what my station demands to philological pursuits, 
my few moments, which I can win from anxiety and labor I give 
to the belles-lettres, for which I thank God my fondness has not 
yet been destroyed amidst all the harassing cares of my situation 
and the din and clamor of the world around me. 

I was once dining at the house of a gentleman of great 
wealth, who had assembled, (I had reason to think in part or 
particularly to show me a little attention) some of the pleasantest 
and most distinguished persons of the opulent families in Boston. 
Miss M. Lyman was there, to speak of the ladies, Miss Otis, 
now Mrs. Ritchie, and another. The conversation was various. 
It turned on the lives and fortune of men. I took little part in it : 
was cold and reserved. Presently some one observed of men of 
letters with something of a contemptuous sneer that they were 
always poor and lived in garrets. I might have replied trium- 
phantly, that in that they pronounced the severest judgment on 
rich men, which for the honor of human nature I trusted was 
not a just one. I preferred not to do so ; I remained nearly silent, 
and least of all appeared to perceive any want of delicacy in those 
who made the remark. All the persons present were my friends, 
one of them proved it by giving me his name for $2,000 at a time 
when my name in business was worth little and when his only 
security was in my character. But observe this : there is an es- 
sential difference between the friendship of men, who are nearly 
on the level in their external fortunes, & the relation which 
grows up between the wealthy and those who have no estates 
but their own time. Poor men, the sons of poor men, children of 
their own works, depending on their own resources, not for fame 
& influence only but for their bread and clothing know best how 
to appreciate the worth of naked humanity. I set a great and 
undue (it may be) value on personal attachment. Where this 


Correspondence oe Bancroft and Sparks 


105 


impulse prevails with me, it urges me to do all that I can to show 
my regard for another in word and deed ; though as I grow older 
I learn to hesitate longer and more frequently than I used to do. 
Friendship like character to be of high value, must be perfect in 
all its parts ; the past & the present must be the guarantees for the 
future; and that is the most sincere and most productive of happi- 
ness, where there is no collision, no jar, no division remembered 
or feared. I envy not Burke his fame half as much as that he 
had it in his power to say what he did of Lord Keppel after the 
death of that officer. I say no more now. The evening is wearing 
away, and these short hours of night are all I get for my book, 
and I have just received a present which merits attention as well 
as gratitude. 

As you see Mr. Greenwood often, I wish you would thank 
him from me for the sermon he did me the kindness to send me. 
I would write to him to make my acknowledgements and claim 
a place in his memory but that I know he is too much occupied 
to receive and write letters, and I can trust you to speak kindly of 
me to him. With best wishes for your prosperity and happi- 
ness, Truly yours, 

BANCROFT TO SPARKS 

Feb. 3, 1826. 

My dear Sir, I should not think it well to defer noticing Pop- 
kin in the N. A. R. any longer. You remember perhaps our 
conversation in October. I have sent to Germany for the books 
necessary to treat of the topic then suggested. But they will not 
come till May; they can be used for something else if it should 
[not] seem best to use them at all. Have you room for 8 or 10 
pages for April? If so when must you have them? the further- 
est day? I have been unwell a fortnight with too much work, and 
labour like a German still, being bound fast as Prometheus to 
the rocks of Caucasus. And am sincerely, Yours, 

BANCROFT TO SPARKS 

My dear Sir, Give me leave to make you acquainted with my 


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friend Dr. C. Follen, a gentleman from Switzerland, of high 
standing as a scholar and a civilian. The love of liberty led him 
to our country, and an appointment to a situation at Cambridge 
will establish him in your vicinity. Let me ask of you for my 
sake to show him that friendly regard, and favor him with that 
information, which you may think will be acceptable to him as 
to one yet new to our country. In the hope to hear of your wel- 
fare & health directly from yourself I am Yours truly, 

Northampton, 8 Dec. 1825. 

SPARKS TO BANCROFT 

Boston, Feb. 6, 1826. 

My dear B. Your short, but very kind favor of the 3d inst, came 
quickly to hand. I agree with you, that Dr. Popkin ought not to 
be put off any longer. But the Apl. number is already filled up, 
and is nearly half printed. To be out in season, I am obliged to 
be thus prompt in all initiatory matters. I have an article on 
hand already for July. I should think you had better make a 
separate affair of Dr. Popkin, 1 in 8 or 10 pp., as you propose. 
Please let me know very shortly whether this is your determi- 
nation, and when I shall have it. Let it come as soon after Apl. 
1st as possible, for we shall then begin to print the July number. 
When your books come from Germany you can take your own 
time for a great article. In the next no. is an able article (40 pp.) 
by Prof. Stuart, on the Hebrew and Samaritan Pentateuch. You 
must not work yourself to death, nor be too greedy after the 
treasures of this world. But you are doing great things, and the 
fruit of your labors are to appear not in the present time only,, 
but in the future ages. Affectionately your friend, 

1 The review has for title “Classical Learning,” XXIII, 142. 

BANCROFT TO SPARKS 

Northampton, March 10, 1826.. 

“Be not too greedy after the treasures of this world,” say you 


Correspondence oe Bancroet and Sparks 


107 


in yours of the 8th Feb. And after what else pray should a man 
be greedy? Truth is the object which we profess to seek and 
intelligence the power under whose banners we rally; but in a 
better world there will be no error to be overcome, no books to 
be read, no doubtful reasonings to follow, no reviews to be writ- 
ten, no midnight lamp to be left burning, but truth will shine 
clearly in her own simple majesty, and there will be an end of 
all the apparatus of the inquirer. Not be greedy after the treas- 
ures of this world ! I went to a friend’s wedding last week. I 
hope he is a happier man than he was. A good wife, with beauty 
enough to satisfy, warm affections enough to cheer, intelligence 
enough to please, cheerfulness enough to enliven the dark hours 
of this mortal state — that is not to be coveted, say you? Oh you 
are a saint, and heavenly minded ; for in heaven there is no marry- 
ing nor giving in marriage, but men are as the angels. Be not 
greedy for the things of this world. Filthy lucre and the rest ; 
be they abhorred and spurned : to be sure a man may be as it were 
the only son of aged parents, and they be poor; and he may have 
seen a race of elder brothers swept away from his side by the 
irresistible hand of fearful destiny, and may have all the duties of 
son, brother and man pressing upon him : yet let him not think of 
this world but fold his hands in contemplative indolence, and 
watch the courses of the stars or the breaking of day, and muse 
with unseen spirits, never striving to have his name respectfully 
uttered, where things are doing, and satisfying all the ties of 
nature by a cold obedience and barren affection. Fie on your 
morality ! The only way to show you are fit for a better world, 
is to show yourself not unfit for this. But peace of mind ; aye, 
there it is; that is a good, a real good, beyond price, and not of 
this world. They say that in heaven all is pleasant and tran- 
quil ; that the spirit of love, emanating from Infinite Intelligence, 
pervades the clear space, diffusing liberty and joy; that there is 
no jarring of dissonant chords, no contention of mind with 
mind except in common efforts, no confusion of wills respect- 
ively claiming the mastery ; but that all are in harmony with 
one Supreme Will, all gain entire independence by voluntary 


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obedience, entire union by unity of service, entire mutual af- 
fection by common attachment to that which is great and holy 
and powerful throughout eternity. . . . What miserable 

creatures we mortals are. The most glorious field for action is 
opening before us, and in our dissensions about the means we 
forfeit the end of exertion: the widest field is opening too, and 
we insist on running f[oul] of one another & rudely jostling 
one another as we pass. We must have our personal bickerings 
before the altars of Duty herself, and while we pretend to be 
engaged in the sacred service are in fact worshipping our own 
earthly passions. 

Touching the review one shall be written and offered you, 
a short one for the time being. As to the rest, I have my head 
full of ideas. Some of which seem to me to be clearly true, 
practical and important ; I have many times had my pen in hand 
to write them out and send you ; but I have feared lest my ideas 
might not be yours, (yet on the whole I am not afraid of that 
for I will print nothing but what is true and I can make appear 
so) or that perchance my manner might not suit you. And 
that I cannot change. In my intercourse with men I acknowl- 
edge no standard but reason and justice, and by them I stand 
in good report and ill, in friendship and where friends become 
enemies. When I attempt to communicate the results of my 
own study or the fruits of my own observation, I should hold 
myself unworthy of addressing the public, if I held any other 
object in view than the public good, or submitted to any other 
tribunal than that most equitable of all, the judgment of the 
public. To that I hope one day to speak, and not ineffectually, 
unless the heavy burden of passing duties buries me under its 
weight. Truly yours, 

BANCROFT TO SPARKS 

Northampton, 16 March, 1826. 

My dear Sir, I yesterday received a very interesting letter from 
the sister of Mrs. Hemans. It communicates with great deli- 


Correspondence of Bancroft and Sparks 109 

cacy some interesting particulars respecting her character and 
situation. I wish very much to make a notice of her works 
(Mrs. H’s), which are very popular in the country wherever 
known. If you can spare room, I wish you would let me know 
it; and the number, whether July or October, in which you 
would wish it to appear. Mrs. H’s. poetry is probably well 
known to you. If not I recommend to your eye her Siege of 
Valencia, which gives a very just idea of her moral worth and 
her literary merits. 

I have some hopes of the pleasure of visiting you and other 
friends at Boston next month, but am not yet able to make any 
precise disposition of the short holidays. We are all well now. 
Truly yours, 


SPARKS TO BANCROFT 

Boston, March 19, 1826. 

My dear B. Yours about Mrs. Hemans is in hand. I shall be 
very glad of the article. Mrs. Hemans corresponds with Mr. 
Norton, & has lately written him, I understand, that an edition 
of her works is to be published in New York. This prevented 
Mr. Norton’s project of publishing them under his own eye. 
You had better wait, probably, till the American edition comes 
out. When you write to New York, you can inquire how it is. 
The particulars I know not. I presume the work cannot be ex- 
pected soon enough to prepare an article for the July number. 
I am to set out in three days for the Southern States. Please 
send your article on Dr. Popkin as soon as [possible] to Mr. 
Folsom, care of Frederick T. Gray, Office of the N. A. Review. 
I thank you for your letter of 10th instant containing many wise 
sayings, on which I have not now time to remark. Go on and 
prosper. Yours very truly, 

SPARKS TO BANCROFT 


Boston, July 31, 1826. 
Dear Bancroft, By the stage tomorrow I shall send you Mrs. 


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Barbauld’s works, and hope you will make a review to be ready 
by the 25th of August. * 1 I consider it one of the best subjects 
now before the public, opening a field for much writing, and 
fine thinking. Mrs. Barbauld certainly stands very near the 
head of the very first rank of female writers, of any age or 
country, whether you regard her original genius, and vigor of 
mind, or her cultivation and the variety of her productions. The 
theme is a noble one, and I hope you will have leisure to do it 
justice. I like your last article much. The account of Wolf is 
drawn with much discrimination, and as a critical piece it pos- 
sesses strong interest. The remarks on classical learning are 
apropos. Dr. Popkins is pufifed perhaps a little too roundly, but 
he is no doubt great in the “authors.” Your oration I have 
read with great pleasure. Your thoughts are good and well ex- 
pressed. I only wondered that you should forget South Am- 
erica in tracing the progress of freedom and its effects. This 
topic would have enlarged your field prodigiously. I have been 
to Georgia and other places. Please reply immediately, and 
send the books back if you are so cruel as to decline. Yours 
truly, 

1 Anna Laetitia Barbauld. 

BANCROFT TO SPARKS 

Northampton, August 2, 1826. 

Dear Friend. I received yours of July 31 in due season; but 
the books did arrive till last night. If there did not exist a 
new claim on my leisure, I believe I should not have allowed 
you to expose in view a wish which I could gratify. I do not 
think Mrs. Barbauld possessed a genius of the most exalted kind: 
uncommon she certainly was, but except some of her fine hymns 

I do not find myself strongly moved by her works. I respect 
her industry and her virtues, but when I drink of the water of 
Helicon I know where they flow more plenteously. Or, is she 
so interesting from having been sixty years on the stage? Yet 
she was in no elevated situation, the humble wife of a humble 


Correspondence of Bancroft and Sparks 


111 


school master; and exercising no influence upon the great events 
of the day, and yet intimately connected with them. I like her 
character of Johnson, vol. 1, page 255, mightily. I appeal to 
you if the following (speaking of the future) is not almost 
bawdy. 

To virgin’s languishing in love 
They speak the minute nigh; 

And warm consenting hearts they join, 

And paint the rapture nigh. 

If the article on Wolf had any merit, it was from its truth. 
All that I said of Wolf was drawn from an intimate personal 
knowledge. But these things do not interest the world ; I have 
not found a man who cared for it, though when I wrote it, I 
thought it might have interest from its minute and faithful ac- 
count of a most astonishing man. 

And my oration? You have read it? And yet think I forgot 
the S. Americans. Pray read page 9 and 10 again, and see if I 
have not spoken of them as a lover of liberty should. For ampli- 
fication I had no time. If you wish for a belle lettres article 
and are willing to trust to me for it, I will wait the four days 
beyond the 25th which must expire before I hear from you, 
and will let me have a letter Monday next. I will write you one 
on Mrs. Hemans, and put into it two pages of sober, discreet 
praise of Mrs. Barbauld. The books I return, since I can get 
them in this town, if you wish me to do as proposed. I think it 
is time, you said something of Mrs. H., and never a better 
moment than now. The review would appear just about the 
time of Mr. Norton’s affair, and please him, the authoress, and 
myself, and take its chance of pleasing the public. Truly yours, 

If you have Brougham on popular education, I wish you 
would lend it me. 


SPARKS TO BANCROFT 

Boston, Aug. 5, 1826. 
Dear B. Yours has just now come into my hands. I am sor- 


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ry you decline the article on Mrs. Barbauld, and more sorry, 
that you should have such false notions of her genius and char- 
acter. Have you read her prose? I know of no female, who 
has written on kindred subjects with more vigor or taste. That 
she was the wife of “a humble school-master,” and was little 
in the great world is one of the wonderful things about her, con- 
sidering her success. Whatever influence she “exercised upon 
the great events of the day,” it is quite certain, that, if you take 
young and old, no female writer is now exercising so great in- 
fluence over the people of England as Mrs. Barbauld. In the 
great characteristics of mind, she is as much above Mrs. Hemans, 
as Mrs. Hemans is above Lydia Huntley, and this without any 
disparagement to either. 

I forget what I wrote you about a review of Mrs. Hemans, 
but it seems to me inexpedient to meddle with it till the Ameri- 
can edition comes out. After that time I should of course be 
very glad of an article from you on the subject; and yet after 
the pains which Mr. Norton has taken to bring her works before 
the American public, it would seem proper, that he should write 
the review if he wishes to do it. This I am sure you will think 
reasonable, and I speak thus frankly to you, that there may be 
no possible cause of misapprehension. I shall say the same to 
Mr. Norton. The matter had better remain in statu quo till 
the book appears, or at least till it is in press. My copy of 
Brougham is lent, or rather lost. I tried to find another some 
time ago, but failed. Let me congratulate you most heartily on 
your future prospects. You are right. A man is not half a 
man till he is married. May you live a thousand years. As 
ever yours, 


BANCROET TO SPARKS 

Sunday Morning, October [24], 1826. 

My dear Friend, When a friend gives me an opportunity of 
saying yes, it is very unpleasant not to do so. You would not 
like my views about Judge Story’s address. I do not think so 


Correspondence of Bancroft and Sparks 


113 


highly of it, as many express themselves. The generous en- 
thusiasm for letters is honorable to him : but there is no point, 
no consistent and continuous train of thoughts. Besides, just 
at this moment the whole care of organizing the school for the 
new session comes upon me, and I see no hope of a day's leisure 
before thanksgiving. Ready to promise and faithful to per- 
form : this was the character you gave me of old. You must not 
consider me as forfeiting it by my declining now. Do not you 
remember too how angry Somerville was with you and me? 
And do you know, that while you reproached me for praising 
Popkin so much, Popkin was vexed at being spoken of so little? 
In great haste, Very truly yours, 

SPARKS TO BANCROFT 

Boston, Oct. 30th, 1826. 

Dear B. “Not a day's leisure before Thanksgiving?" How is 
this possible? Every man has leisure, abundance of leisure, 
leisure moments, minutes, hours ; and are not days made up of 
moments, minutes, hours ? And are not reviews written in 
moments, minutes, hours? To be brief, I will not press you on 
the affair of the Phi Beta; but the new “Greek and English 
Lexicon" by Pickering at alios you must review. Say not, 
no. It will not be accepted. Talk not of being married, or of 
^organizing the school": it will all avail nothing. Write 6 pages 
on the Lexicon, if you have no more time; or as many pages 
as you like. It affords an excellent opportunity for discussing 
the question of the priority of Greek or Latin in studying the lan- 
guages. The fashion of beginning with Greek is coming much 
in vogue, and will increase as dictionaries in English and Greek 
multiply. It seems to me a good notion, but it is a topic to dis- 
cuss in the present stage of things; as well as other things con- 
nected there with. 

“Popkin was vexed at being spoken of so little." Who 
cares ? Did anybody ever write an article that pleased every- 
body? Such an article would be too insipid for any respectable 


4 


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publication. Half the opinions of men are errors, and if you tell 
truth you must offend half mankind. Are we therefore to re- 
frain from telling truth? Ov SokC) Go on, and review the Lexi- 
con, as a scholar, and a man of independence; give all due 
praise and talk like a sensible man, and let those complain who 
will. 1 I will give you till Nov. 25th. Longer I cannot, — longer 
you want not. Please reply immediately and say “Yes,” and 
oblige Your sincere friend, 

1 Several persons had refused to review this book. Its author, John 
Pickering, was a son of Timothy Pickering, long at the centre of federal- 
ist political circles in New England. The son had his father’s papers, 
which Sparks wished to see. 

* BANCROFT TO SPARKS 


Nov. 2, 1826 

And so I must put by the pleasant occupations, with which 
I intended to fill up my few moments of leisure, and defer 
those matters of private interest, which I have already deferred 
so long. Well, be it so. The character of Pickering’s book, the 
mode of instructing in the ancient languages in reply to the 
Hamiltonian system, the priority of Greek studies, the present 
state of the question as to classic learning among us, and the 
proper topics, and in less than 15 or 20 pages cannot be dis- 
cussed. I will not say anything, as to my own feelings about 
this business. Literature I love, and the truth I inquire after 
I fear not to tell; but reviewing is a bad business. You see the 
very thought of it makes me sad and prosing. You shall have 
the article in due time, lively but just, containing no hasty state- 
ments, and no unmerited censure. Very sincerely your friend, 
Northampton, Nov. 2, 1826. 

P. S. I need the last or the two last volumes of Schoel’s 
Hist. Lit. Grecque. 1 You must borrow it for me. Hilliard, Gray 
& Co. have a copy. But I cannot afford to buy it. Nor you. 
I can do without it sir, but not so well. The other books I have. 

1 Maximilien Samson Frederic Schoell, 1766-1833, a German historian 
and diplomatist. 


Correspondence: oe Bancroet and Sparks 


115 


BANCROET TO SPARKS 

Northampton, Nov. 10, 1826, Thursday Eve. 

Dear Friend You need not send me Schoell. I have read him, 
and have got better books and newer. I find myself possessed 
of all the documents necessary to write a thorough review of 
Mr. Pickering. I can send an elaborate and learned article, if 
you will. Only for that it must be long. What limits do you 
set me. I shall bestow the praise so justly due to Mr. Pickering, 
yet freely and calmly point out the many weak sides of his 
work. And may need forty pages, and perhaps from 15 to 35 
will do. Yours truly, 

Answer to my limits by return mail. Schoel’s book is of 
little value. Why have you taken no notice of the new edition 
of Buttman’s Greek Gram.? It is worthy of a better fate than 
to be received silently. Thus was a great deal of industry 
bestowed before the short new preface was written. My in- 
tention is to write 6, 8, or 10 pages of a Greek and English lexi- 
con and to print it in one column, and in the adjacent to print 
Pickering’s. Compare them who will and judge of Pickering’s 
in the fairest of all ways. Tell [the] truth. Will you publish 
it if I will tell it? And print a sharp thing, if I can write one, and 
a justly merited one? Answer me to that. 

bancroet to sparks 

Northampton, Nov. 10, 1826. 

Had I received your favor a few moments sooner last even- 
ing, you would not have heard from me last night. I was 
afraid, you would put yourself to too much trouble to get 
Schoell, and, as I have since then obtained the original works 
which I needed, I could have done without it. I am sincerely ob- 
liged to you for sending it (it has not yet arrived, will come prob- 
ably tonight), and it will be of much use, though the new books I 
have, would have enabled me to do without it. 

And as to the matter itself, I mean to write an article, if 


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possible, not unworthy the journal and the subject, and that 
shall be pleasant to you and me. Do not infer from my first 
letter, that I do not do this cheerfully ; I do it for you with all my 
heart, and am now considerably interested in the subject. Yet 
not one word is yet written. And as to the length of the article, 
I cannot do the subject justice in less than ten, and nobody will 
read more than eighteen or twenty pages. As to Mr. Pickering, 
all praise that is deserved must be allowed him. And I shall at 
the same time hold it a duty, to show, that all is not done because 
a little has been done well. 

Mr. and Mrs. Hall are receiving little parties from their 
friends. We have Mr. and Mrs. Hodgkinson here also ; but I 
have no time to visit them. How independent is a scholar’s life. 
His occupation, his excitement, his pleasures within his own 
control. If safe against anxiety for worldly support, his hours 
may be jocund and his thoughts all roses. This last is a quota- 
tion. Quite sentimental for a reviewer of Lexicons. Yours 
truly, 


SPARKS TO BANCROFT 

Boston, Nov. 10, 1826. 

Dear B. Your letter has come to day, but Schoell was packed 
off three days ago, and you have probably received it. As it is 
borrowed you must send it back soon, if you do not want it. 
As to limits, take what you like, — only be ready Nov. 25th, as 
agreed. Be learned-, or popular, or both, as you please. Criti- 
cize justly, but with good temper, and with due respect for so 
high authority as Mr. Pickering. He has great merits for his 
literary ardor and acquisitions, in the midst of a laborious pro- 
fession, and it is not to be dealt lightly with, nor should his works 
be examined with the same acuteness, as one coming from a pro- 
fessor of the language. Besides, he makes no high pretensions, 
and in such case it will hardly be just to be very free with cen- 
sures. I imagine he has accomplished nearly all he attempted. 
Moreover, his coadjutors seem to have taken the greater share 


Correspondence: of Bancroft and Sparks 


117 


of the work. And after all it professes to be only a translation 
of Schrevelius, and all great defects must be in the original 
author. Mr. Pickering may have committed a mistake in trans- 
lating such an author. Of this you must judge. In short, treat 
the matter as your judgment dictates, only take care to discrim- 
inate in your praises and censures, both as to persons and things. 

I do not much like the notion of printing your sample of a 
Greek Lexicon. If this is necessary, I hope you will content 
yourself with 3 or 4 pages. The new edition of Buttmann I 
have never seen. You should have set somebody to notice it. 
That is the way to do things. I cannot keep the run of the whole 
tide of literature. I will look up a copy and have it noticed in 
the next number. Meantime I am with sincere regard Your 
friend, 

P. S. Write all proper names and hard words exceedingly 
plain. 


BANCROFT TO SPARKS 

I have won a day. The review, which I promised, shall be 
despatched this night. Of course you will have it the 24th. 
I claim for it the merit of being candidly and carefully written. 
As to the Greek quoted, and the names, they are written most 
exactly. .Where I use the marks of quotation before a Greek 
word “ do not let them in printing be confounded with the 
aspirated ‘. You will probably think best to print it all in the 
same type. I should wish it so, if my wishes were to be of any 
avail. You may depend upon all facts being stated on sufficient 
authority. I have not committed either [myself] or you. Were 
you to examine me by the common books I should be found 
wrong, but those very books I am bound to condemn and have 
my more recent and more accurate authorities. All the new 
works were before me as I wrote, and the force of my expres- 
sions carefully weighed. Pray acknowledge, the receipt of it, 
as soon as you have it and shall have read it. 

It has occurred to me that an article on [the] Connecticut 
River would be a word in season. To collect all statistical facts 


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Smith College Studies in History 


on the nature and extent of business done on its banks, the 
water power of itself and its tributary streams, the present con- 
dition of the manufacturing interests, the feasibility, the ex- 
pense, and the manner of improving its navigation — these are 
some of the chief points I should treat. Perhaps a historical 
notice occasionally interspersed would enliven the whole — com- 
parisons between the present and the past ; more like your article 
on Baltimore than anything I can think. 1 I say not that I will 
write such an article, I ask if such an article would be acceptable 
to you, if executed well and with a thorough knowledge of the 
facts. If so, then I will ascertain if I can collect the necessary 
facts and you shall hear from me again in December. On this 
I wish an early answer. I send you the article on Gr. Lex. in 
the confidence that it is calculated to advance Greek learning 
among us. Pickering himself, if a man of moderation, must 
acknowledge its justice. Truly your friend, 

(The postage will be heavy) Send to Earl’s, and if not there 
— as I shall certainly send the parcel and in the regular time — 
you must hunt it up. The parcel is directed Jared Sparks, Bos- 
ton, to be left at Earl’s. 

Wednesday, Nov. 22, 1826. 

1 See North American Review, XX, 99, January, 1825. 

SPARKS TO BANCROET 

Boston, Dec. 1, 1826. 

Dear B. Your review is in press, but the first part a good deal 
altered. It was read to two of our best Greek scholars, one of 
whom did not know who the author was, and they both said 
most unequivocably, that they thought your criticisms too severe, 
and your general tone of remark not altogether suited to the 
dignity of the subject. In these I agreed with them perfectly. 
By the mode of criticizing which you adopted, Stevens himself 
might not only be made very imperfect, but ridiculous. You 
may depend the article as you sent it would have given no pleas- 
ure to anybody, but offence to many. It was important to re- 


Correspondence oe Bancroft and Sparks 


119 


tain the Scripture proper names, because one object of the 
Lexicon is to aid in reading the “O. & N. Testament/' and 
pupils must know how to decline these words before they can 
read. On the whole I thought best to omit your verbal criti- 
cisms, and I was obliged to throw in two or three short para- 
graphs of my own to connect matters together. As the thing is 
of very little importance, I presume you will have no objection 
to what is done; and if you should I cannot help it, as there was 
no time to deliberate. Your observations on Greek Lexicons 
generally are so valuable that I could not part with them, and 
as things now stand the review of the said Lexicon is a second- 
ary affair in the article. It is headed “Greek Lexicography." 
Pickering's enterprise was certainly a praiseworthy one, vast- 
ly more laborious, than honorable, and the result of criticisms 
on it should not be a severe censure, but rather a commendation, 
whatever the minor faults may be. It is observable, that you 
do not point out any other single work which ought to have been 
taken in preference. 

Your Connecticut river project is an excellent one, if you 
have the patience to collect all the materials. The article should 
be written with method, condensed, abounding in facts on every- 
thing relating to the resources, commerce, navigation, canals, 
&c, &c, of the River; and all the manufactures on its tributary 
streams. Let me know shortly whether I may depend on the 
article Feby. 10. My article on Baltimore was called very 
heavy, except by those, who were interested ; but the making of 
it was a great labor. Mr. Norton tells me, that he has talked 
with you about Mrs. Hemans (Hemmans I understand is the 
pronunciation) and that you are to make a review for the N. A. 
Review. He has written for the Examiner: so between the two 
stools I am likely to come to the ground. I have beset Green- 
wood, and hope to get an article out of him, but am doubtful. 
Truly yours, 

P. S. I have got the French book, but should have been 
much better pleased if you had sent a notice. 


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BANCROFT TO SPARKS 

Monday, Dec. 5, 1826. 

My dear S. How far I may have any objections to the course 
you have taken with the review, which I reluctantly at first, 
and then, having overcome my reluctance, very cheerfully wrote 
for you, I cannot say, till I know more exactly what you have * 
done. If you have gone so far, as essentially to change the char- 
acter of the article, I owe it to myself to resist and refuse the 
changes. It become me most on this occasion to be silent; and 
next to silence, it become me most to speak the truth. The gen- 
eral tone of remark in the article is earnest and solemn, except 
where there was some folly to be reproved, or some sneer as in 
the last page to be replied to. The style is lively, but not im- 
pertinent. 

I like it not that you call the review too severe without rea- 
son. Point out one error in my remarks. Show me one single 
word of Pickering’s perverted, show me one single statement 
in which anything is exaggerated, tell me of one merit of his I 
have omitted to mention, one sentence I have written ascribing 
and magnifying errors, and I will own my criticism too severe. 
But if every word is true, and there is not the least pretense that 
truth is distorted or placed in a wrong light, then have I done 
well and justly what you asked me to do, and what I ought to 
have done. 

But the severe mode of criticism would make Stevens ridicul- 
ous. You cannot be very familiar with Stephanus to say that. 
The mode of criticism is one which I learnt in the schools of the 
best masters and leads to the result the article states about 
Stevens. It is the only fair criticism, careful and minute: any 
other is superficial and deceptive. But the article would have 
given no pleasure to anybody. That is a mistake. The public 
is always with those that tell the truth. It would give offence 
to many. I knew it and told you so beforehand. You en- 
couraged me to write freely, and rightly said to my fears; Who 
cares? “It was important , however, to retain the Scripture 


Correspondence of Bancroft and Sparks 


121 


Proper names P Much you have examined the subject to say 
that. Nobody of character has advocated that opinion for 
more than seventy years just [ ?] past. Valcknaer and Ruhnken; 
and Wythenbach, Schneider, Riemer, and Passow are the au- 
thorities, whom I followed, and think they were right, though 
your two Boston advisers may remain of the old opinion . 1 

Why did you put me to the trouble of writing a careful 
article? Why did you not say at first, you wanted a milk and 
water thing, suited to the meridian of Salem and Boston? I look- 
ed at the country and at the truth. To have written what it 
now seems you wanted, three hours would have been sufficient. 
I have wasted my time: my good nature is made a fool of. I, 
too, on first reading over my review deemed it sounded too 
severe. I went through it with most scrupulous care to erase 
all that could be. A personal friend of Mr. Pickering came to 
me, and urged me to treat the book courteously. I read him my 
article slowly and carefully, and asked his judgment. He as- 
sured me I was on the right side in matter and manner. The 
man was my friend too, and likes to have the truth told. 

As to the criticisms I read them all to Bode . 2 He very de- 
liberately considered them. There is not the slightest error in 
them. I say this, not on Bode’s authority ; for every remark 
I made, I have two and commonly more authorities. Further, 
I deserve all commendation for I spared Mr. Pickering and 
held up Schrevelius as his screen. 

You have not treated me well in this affair. An editor of a 
review, if he is dealing with a man who deserves and claims re- 
spect, may reject an article, if he will. He must judge what 
under all circumstances he ought to do. But to change it with- 
out the consent and without the knowledge of the writer, is not 
to be justified. A hireling writer, or a novice will put up with 
it. A man of honor and independence, one worthy of writing, 

1 Louis Gaspard Valchenaer, 1735-1785, and Daniel Wyttenbach, 1746- 
1820, were Dutch philologists. David Ruhnken, 1723-1798, Jean George 
Schneider, 1750-1822, Franz Passow, 1786-1833, and Friedrich Wilhelm 
Riemer, 1774-1845, were German philologists. 

2 George Henry Bode. 


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never will. I do not wish to make a difficulty. If your changes 
are not essential, that is, if it leaves the impression on the read- 
er’s mind strongly and unequivocally that Pickering has not 
supplied the want of the public, but only done moderately well, 
while better things are needed, I will be quiet, and let the matter 
go. If you have gone so far as to praise Schrevelius, I will 
have no lot nor part in it. Writing is action. I had as lief cheat a 
man of money as give him an opinion which I know to be false. 

If the manuscript is not yet in press, the shortest way would 
be to return it with your remarks, or, if you prefer, to return 
it for good. I have no object to gain by its appearance. I 
should say do about it as will please yourself best, always re- 
specting my right to my own way of expressing my own thoughts. 
I have just read an anecdote to me entirely new. One of Fred- 
erick the Great’s ministers came to him with a long story against 
Homer and Virgil and Plato, and that sort of people, and pres- 
ently began extolling the inventor of the herring-fishery to the 
skies ; so said the king, you love to eat herrings, I suppose. — 
Capital. A sharper thing is seldom uttered. And now, having 
done growling, and I hope quickened your conscience to take 
the lead in everything like improvement, I remain, though fond 
of my own way when I write, and not liking a censorship, Your 
friend 

If the article is already printed, I beg you to send me my 
manuscript, and a copy of the printed review. 

BANCROFT TO SPARKS 

Tuesday Eve, Dec. 6, 1826. 

My dear friend, Last night’s mail brought me a letter from Mr. 
Pickering in reply to one of mine, with which I had sent him 
a copy of Riemer’s Lexicon and in which I had explained to him 
my views. I deemed it right not to take him by surprise in the 
number for January, and also to bear myself whatever dislike 
my criticism might excite in that quarter. His letter is friendly, 
conceding most points ; yet persisting in one or two errors ; on 


Correspondence oe Bancroft and Sparks 


123 


which he needs further information. I will not believe you 
can have done with my article, what the broadest interpretation 
of your letter would lead me to suppose. A thousand things 
come on my mind, which I could say, why it ought not [to] be, 
and why you therefore have probably not done so ; but I cannot 
argue on this point. My duty is a plain one. Essential altera- 
tions I will not permit. The tendency of the article must re- 
main such as I wrote it. I have turned the matter over in my 
mind, and I owe it to myself to be decided. Nor deem this un- 
kind. Friendship may lead me to write for you promptly on 
such a subject as you propose, but it never can require me to 
make a compromise with truth. 

I owe it to the cause of learning, if I speak at all, to raise 
my voice, however weak, against the perpetuating old abuses, 
the continuance of what the improvements of man two hundred 
years should have thrown aside. To Mr. Pickering personally 
I have no ill feeling to gratify; praise him personally if you 
will, but let the truth stand. Remember your own review of 
Everett. Remember your own remarks (yours I suppose, ex- 
cellent, whoever made them) in last number of the N. A. R. on 
freedom of criticism, unimpeded by personal feeling; remem- 
ber your own letters to me. A day’s reflection has confirmed 
me in my views. I will not be found bolstering up ancient preju- 
dice, after having with almost unparalleled success contended 
against it till the victory is won, and only the laggards remain 
to be routed. 

Pickering himself says to me, Do not think I differ from you 
in your opinions &c &c — but “the time has not come,” and then 
praises the Germans, acknowledges their superiority but says 
we cannot screw our teachers up to the mark. As if men would 
value a good candle the less, for having had only a rush light, 
or from living on saw dust not know how to relish a plumb 
pudding. Fight the good fight of faith and you will find the 
strength of the country round you. Otherwise, — but forgive 
me, I go beyond my privilege in speaking. Yours sincerely — 

N. B. I have written Greenwood, offering him Mrs. Heman’s 
letter to me, if he will but write a review. 


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BANCROFT TO SPARKS 

My dear S. I received night before last your favor of the 
11th, and late last night the sheets of the review. Your omis- 
sions and additions do in my view essentially change the char- 
acter of my article. The remarks which you have added, do 
not accord with what I have publicly and privately expressed ; 
and on the whole the article as it now stands is calculated to 
convey an impression entirely different from what I designed. 
I cannot as a man of honor, take part in this or permit it, with- 
out forfeiting my claim to self-respect. In the cheerful sacri- 
fice of my personal tastes and comfort to gratify your request 
that I would write on this subject, a request expressed in a 
manner too earnest to make me willing to refuse, I could have 
foreseen no such result. I forgive you for what you have done; 
but I call on you to repair it in the best manner you can, now 
that it is not yet too late. I protest against the publication of 
the article as it now stands ; I absolutely refuse my consent to 
it ; I go further: if I have any legal right to forbid it, I exercise 
that right. The delay in publishing the number and the loss you 
may sustain are small evils in my mind, compared with what I 
should otherwise be called upon to suffer. There is but one 
condition on which I am willing to recede from my demand to 
have the article cancelled. It is, that you will publish in an in- 
tegral part of the number, in a place as conspicuous as that of 
the article, in the same type, a paragraph from me, disclaiming 
as far as I am concerned, the first part of the review, declaring 
that it gives no adequate, nor correct idea of my views, and 
that, having written an article at your urgent entreaty, this ar- 
ticle was essentially changed in its character, without my con- 
sent or knowledge, and that the change, so soon as it became 
known to me, formed a subject of immediate and decided remon- 
strance to you on my part. 

I told you writing reviews was a bad business. You see it 
has resulted in no good to me. I do not enter into a justifica- 
tion of my article; partly because it is quite enough to write one, 


Correspondence of Bancroft and Sparks 


125 


and partly because you have not controverted a single point in 
it. I did not write it in contempt of the opinion of others : I 
only made choice of the guides whom, from their knowledge of 
the subject, I hold it safest to follow. The manuscript you can 
have no further use for, and I have need of. I wish you would 
send it to me as early in the week as you conveniently can. I 
wish also to hear by the earliest mail, what is your final de- 
cision, that I may conduct myself accordingly. 

It is very painful to me to be compelled to this course. I 
write to you without any excitement, in perfect good nature, 
and after consultation with several friends, who have given me 
but one opinion of my duty and yours. I mention this, that you 
may know it to be in accordance with, not in contempt of, the 
opinion of others, that I now act; though a man, when he is 
doing right, or maintaining truth, needs only the consolation of 
his own judgment and conscience. With best wishes and sin- 
cerity, Yours, 

Northampton, 13 Dec. 1826. 

SPARKS TO BANCROFT 

Boston, Dec. 18, 1826. 

My dear Sir, As you take the matter so much to heart I am 
truly sorry, that the article was printed, but there is now no 
help for it. To cancel it would require another article of pre- 
cisely the same length to be put in its place; but no such article 
is written, & not a moment of time remains for doing it. Your 
plan of printing an explanation, even if it were proper in itself, 
is now impossible, for the whole work, to the end of the last 
signature, was through the printer’s hands before your letter 
arrived. I shall give directions to have your manuscript sent 
immediately by stage as you request. I leave home tomorrow 
morning for the South, and any letter addressed to me under 
cover to Mr. Everett will reach me. Meantime, I wish you 
would inform Mr. Norton immediately as to your decision on 
the review of Mrs. Hemans, because if you decline some other 
person must be engaged. I am Your friend and obt. servant, 


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SPARKS TO BANCROFT 

Baltimore, Jany. 2d, 1827. 

My dear Sir, Your note of 27th ulto has just been received. 
I regret, as much as you can, that the article was printed, since 
you have such impressions of the business, though I have no 
sense of “worry” in the case, and can only wonder again at your 
strange notions of an editor’s task, and of these things in gen- 
eral. I believe there is no mortal whose views on the subject 
in any respect resembles yours ; and if all writers were thus 
minded, an editor’s condition would be very much like that of a 
toad under a harrow. No man, in fact, would stand to such a 
post long. But let this pass. I left the review of Mrs. Hfemans] 
with Mr. Norton and Mr. Palfrey, and wish you would write 
to one of them as soon as possible your decision. Mr. Palfrey 
takes charge of the Review in my absence. You draw a sad 
picture of the effects of orthodoxy. Perseverance will lead to 
triumph. Go on. Live down opposition. Defy calumny, de- 
fend right, enforce truth, and all good things will follow. Truly 
yours, 


BANCROFT TO SPARKS 

Northampton, Jan. 18, 1827. 

Dear S, I suppose you know, that Chancellor Kent has pub- 
lished a great book, of which I will not give an account from 
hearsay, though I anticipate much pleasure from reading it. 
Judge Howe of this place is as you know a man in every re- 
spect of the highest worth and singular sagacity as a lawyer. 
He is an admirer of the virtues and worth of Chancellor Kent, 
and would probably explain the merits of his (the Chancellor’s) 
book better than anybody we know. I write to you now, to say, 
that I believe Mr. Howe would write a capital and excellent, 
and to all concerned very valuable article upon it, and one in 
every respect satisfactory to the friends of Chancellor Kent, 
and creditable to the N. A. Review, if you were to invite him to 
do so. If you like this idea, and I do not see, why it should not 


Correspondence oe Bancroft and Sparks 


127 


be highly desirable to you, you can send me a letter to be shown 
Judge Howe, or what is better write to him yourself about it. 

Do not wonder at me for liking gentlemanly intercourse on 
equal terms. I respect your independence as much but not more 
than my own. Be the past forgiven and forgotten, or if that 
phrase is wrong, at any rate forgotten. If it is folly to be anx- 
ious for tomorrow, it is criminal and excessively foolish to 
worry about yesterday. Matters being put on a right footing, it 
is enough. In truth your friend, 

BANCROFT TO SPARKS 

[n. d., postmark Northampton, Aug. 18, 1827] 

My dear S, I was glad last night to get some direct signs of 
life from you. I have heard and read much of your great doings 
at Mount Vernon, and rejoice to learn of your design of visit- 
ing the old world, to get, if it be possible, the important docu- 
ments contained in the British Colonial files. I write this even- 
ing that I may promptly acknowledge the pleasure I have in 
hearing from you. The two points, to which you call my at- 
tention require a little deliberation before a decisive answer. 
Early next week you shall have the best of my will on the one 
topic, and the best of my views and opinions on the other. 

The Valley of the Connecticut is just rising in business, popu- 
lation, wealth, and science. The character of the population 
is advancing. I sincerely think it the fruit (?) of New Eng- 
land, destined to rise most rapidly. Do but think of Vermont, 
which is already so distinguished for the enterprise and shrewd- 
ness, and moral honesty and as it were native philosophy of 
its people. What is a state like Georgia in comparison with 
it? I suppose you are aware of the almost unexampled in- 
crease of Springfield, and Northampton in the last four years, 
and the great prosperity of Hartford? But I go further than I 
meant tonight. Early next week I will write you at large. To- 
night I merely intended to own the receipt of your friendly 
letter. Meantime, no more “most obedient servant,” at the close 


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of an epistle. It sounds too much like a letter of formal busi- 
ness. Wishing we could see you here, as we did not trespass 
on your courtesies at Mount Vernon, I remain Very sincerely 
yours, 


BANCROET TO SPARKS 

Northampton, Aug. 25, 1827. 

My dear friend, My uncertainty in answering you on the sub- 
ject of the River arose from my wishing to consult one or two 
gentlemen who are most acquainted with the details on the sub- 
ject. I am now obliged to say, that nothing less than a personal 
tour from Enfield Falls to Barnet would enable me to gather 
the information, without which neither you, nor the public, nor 
I ought to be satisfied. Such a tour I contemplate and have still 
in prospect, if Heaven ever blesses me with fifteen days of leis- 
ure. I cannot but add that I think your article on Baltimore 
was judicious, well written, and of permanent interest, worth a 
dozen doses of sentimental criticism, and that similar articles on 
various sections of the country would be of great and general 
value. 

The Valley of the Connecticut is but just coming to a con- 
sciousness of its resources. Agriculture is fast, improving, and 
the lands, hitherto desolate, our farmers are fast bringing under 
culture. You know what vast expenditures, chiefly for the 
cotton business, have been made at Ware, Three Rivers, and 
Chickopee. Besides this there are very large manufactures of 
paper, which are constantly increasing, and which already do a 
prodigious business. But I mistake if in a few years the woolen 
business does not flourish here in the greatest degree. The 
country is, you know, suited to pasturing; and the hills and 
light soils do well with sheep. Thus we shall produce the raw 
material and manufacture it. I am possessed of some interest- 
ing facts on this topic, but not extensive enough for our purpose. 

Meantime, our own village is almost the most thriving in the 
Commonwealth. I feel myself identified with it, and indeed it 


Correspondence oE Bancroft and Sparks 


129 


is not without a joy in creation and a sentiment of gratitude and 
pleasure, that from the balcony of my own house I am able to 
look out upon so busy and so prospering a country. My pros- 
pect extends through various openings in the hills to the Monad- 
neck of N. H. on the north ; on the south the view is bounded 
only by the mountains in Stafford Conn, and the intermediate 
distance crowded with objects of interest, lovely scenery, and 
numerous villages. 

The Germans will need in their libraries your papers of 
Washington: but they will prefer your original edition. Two 
volumes might find a sale, if they were composed of letters, 
most illustrative of the character of the man. The limits to 
your profits would be $750 clear of expenses; but I think would 
not probably exceed $350. It would be a high price for a pub- 
lisher to pay $12 per 16 pages 8vo., and no Christian, even in 
Germany, can translate for less than $4 per 16 pages. I think 
you could get it well done for that, or for $6, decently for less. 
It would not do to have the two volumes exceed 1200 pages, 
and the demand for the book would be less than 1500 copies. 
So you can calculate the costs and profits yourself. I should 
say, that you or the American proprietor could hardly expect 
more than $500. But the South American Republics, Mexico 
and Guatemala ! Your pets: there is the field for you. 

You are a lucky fellow; selected by a favoring Providence, 
to conduct a good ship into the haven of immortality, and to 
have your own name recorded as the careful pilot. But I envy 
not Croesus his wealth nor you your glory. With great regard 
yours, 


SPARKS TO BANCROFT 

Boston, Sept. 10th, 1827. 

Dear Bancroft, At this moment I have only time to thank you 
for your two kind letters. As to the Valley of the Connecticut, 
I must leave it with you. I know something of the labor of pre- 


5 


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paring such an article, and would not insist on your doing it, 
010 ’ I am sure it would be valuable, if patience and time would 
enable you to procure materials. But lay up the subject for the 
present in a pigeon hole of your pericranium, as a thing that 
may be. Your German talk is good. I have also held a palaver 
on the subject with the renowned doctors Follenius and Lieber- 
ius. 1 The thing will very likely come to pass. But I can tell bet- 
ter after I visit Leipzig, which will be next summer ; before which 
time I shall endite other matter to you. Truly yours, 

1 Professor Charles C. Follen, of Harvard, and Francis Lieber. 


BANCROFT TO SPARKS 


Nov. 11, 1827. 

My dear S. I enclose a letter for Lappenberg. He is a grand, 
good fellow, the best man for you at Hamburg by all odds, and 
quite a rummager of archives. He talks English fluently. Mrs. 
Hertz [ ?] is a blue stocking, talks English admirably well, 
German, Italian, French, or anything else. She can tell you all 
about Berlin. She is a widow and not of the nobility. The let- 
ter for Countess America Bernstoft, I do not enclose in an en- 
velope, but you must, before you give it, sealed with wax, and 
with proper flourishes. The Germans are great sticklers for 
titles. She talks English a little : the letter itself will show you, 
what chord I have touched to get an interest in her for you. 
In winter she is at Berlin. Get the book well bound. Shall you 
go to Leipzig? When do you sail? Shall you visit Gottingen? 
Do you wish for a letter to Heeren? Where do you sail from? 
Tell me, if I can serve you in anything, and you need not doubt 
of my disposition to serve you. 

Mr. Everett it seems is to conduct the N. A. R. in your ab- 
sence. It could not be in better hands. It is not improbable I 
may be a regular contributor to it in your absence. As I have to 
get my living by my wits, it is proper for me to state to you, 
if you are the person concerned, that the few pages I can find 
time to write and am willing should be printed have a value in 


Correspondence of Bancroft and Sparks 


131 


money. The Editor of the Review is in this respect as any other 
publisher. I can readily receive two dollars a page for writing, 
and a great many civil words into the bargain. For civil words 
I stipulated : for the rest, I say, I know no reason, why in justice, 
I should not, if paid at all, be paid what the labor, I will not say 
is worth, will bring. Your decision on this point will not affect 
my intention to write; since by so doing I shall co-operate with 
Mr. Everett. It is a question of mere justice. I am in haste, or 
I would write more about Germany. Wishing you all prosperity 
I remain Yours ever, 

Northampton, Nov. 11, 1827. 

SPARKS TO BANCROFT 

Boston, Dec. 7th, 1827. 

My dear Sir, I am greatly obliged by your kind letters to Ger- 
many. The book for the Countess America is elegantly bound. 
I fear I shall not reach Hamburgh. My route will be from Am- 
sterdam up the Rhine to Mentz, Frankfort, Hessel Cassel, Gott- 
ingen, Hanover, Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden, Munich, Stutgard, 
Strasburg, Basil [sic], Switzerland. I am glad you intend writ- 
ing for Mr. Everett. I wish, as heartily as you do, that the N. 
A. R. could afford to pay more; but it cannot. The average of 
my receipts as editor, since I have had the work, has been less 
than $1200 a year. All the rest of the profits [w] has gone to 
the writers. If money is your main object in writing, I fear the 
N. A. R. will never hold out luring temptations. I do not think 
my services have been extravagantly paid, and I shall always be 
disposed to give the writers all the profits [sic] above what they 
shall themselves deem a reasonable pay for editing. I think you 
make a mistake in splitting yourself into parts. If you wish to 
build up a solid fame, choose your book, and stick to it. This is 
the case with all the great writers in the English Reviews. But 
judge them [?], — only keep the good of literature at heart. I 
leave home in five days for Washington. I shall sail in a month 


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or two. A letter under cover to Mr. Ed. Everett will reach me. 
Let me hear from you, Very truly your friend, 

BANCROFT TO SPARKS 

My dear sir, The N. Y. American says you have sailed for Eu- 
rope. Mrs. Dwight tells me you are still in Boston. I have been 
very much harrassed of late, and have had no time to write letters. 
This week I can command a few hours. Do you wish for a letter 
to Heeren and Blumenbach at Gottingen? B. speaks English very 
well. Since I wrote you last I have had a letter from W. Hum- 
boldt ; and am at liberty to introduce you to him. Shall I write 
one for you ? He is the best man for you to know. When shall 
you be in Gottingen and Berlin? I write interrogatively and 
short, for it may be, you are on the waves, and this letter will 
not reach you. I am on the very best terms with Heeren and 
Blumenbach’s family Yours, 

Feb. 19, 1828, Northampton. 

/ 

SPARKS TO BANCROFT 

London, March 10th, 1829, 

Dear Bancroft, I send you a volume containing an account of 
the London University. Several of the introductory lectures de- 
livered by different professors, and divers other matters on the 
same subject. I wish to procure an excellent article for the N. 
A. Review on the London University, and I can think of no per- 
son, who will do it so well as yourself, if you have leisure to 
undertake it. The volume, which I forward to you, contains a 
mass of facts from which you may easily draw up an article. The 
subject has moreover been discussed, as you are aware, in the 
Edinburgh Review, and New Monthly Magazine. In the last 
number of the Quarterly is an article touching this topic by 
Southey, but he and the Tory party are hostile to the London 
University, and have set on foot a counter project, which they 
call King's College. Very little has yet been done, however, but 


Correspondence oe Bancroet and Sparks 


133 


to talk about it, and the money part of the concern is understood 
to move heavily. 

The London University has gone into operation during the 
last winter, and already contains more than 500 students. In the 
Edinburgh Review and New Monthly Magazine you will find a 
history of all the early proceedings, and in the volume I send is 
contained a full account of the present state and practical objects 
of the University. It is not probable the book will reach you so 
soon as this letter, but you will receive it in due time. I have met 
many of your friends in Europe, who have inquired after you with 
interest. In Gottingen numerous questions were asked, which 
I answered according to the best of my knowledge. Bluemen- 
bach, Heeren, Saalfeld, Beneke, and others talked of you, and 
said they had much pleasure in recollecting your residence among 
them. I had the gratification to see Bluemenbach in his character 
of skulls, and to drink tea with the family. You would be too 
much flattered were I to tell you all that was said, and particu- 
larly by Miss Blumenbach. I dare say you have not forgotten 
the young lady. With Heeren I got along rather clumsily as 
he talked no English, and a French little better than mine. From 
Gottingen I went to Leipsic by way of the Gleichen (is it not), 
Nordhausen, and Halle, leaving the Hartz on the left, and the 
Brocken hiding his majestic head in the clouds. I was so much 
straitened for time, that I could not go to the north as I had 
hoped, but was obliged to hasten back to Paris. 

During the year that I have been in Europe, I have been 
most busily employed in historical researches with reference to 
the American Revolution, and have met with entire success. 
The public offices in Paris, in London, have been opened to me 
in a most liberal manner, and I have gathered from them a treas- 
ure of historical facts. As I have been obliged in all cases to 
get the consent of the ministers in whose departments the papers 
are contained, there have been some difficulties and embarrass- 
ments in the forms, but I have everywhere found a readiness of 
disposition to render me every reasonable facility. 


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We are all up in arms here now about the Catholic Question. 
The nation is more excited about it, than was apprehended, but 
there is no doubt the ministry will carry it through by a large 
majority. The orthodox dissenters are terribly opposed. I 
heard the celebrated preacher, Irvine [sic], two days ago make 
a most denunciatory prayer against the idolatry of popery, and 
that the rulers might be so enlightened, as never to grant con- 
cessions to such idolaters. I was not much surprised at this, 
after hearing a sermon which contained more nonsense than 
I had ever heard uttered from a pulpit. His fame is at the foot 
of the hill. 

It is generally understood that Capt. Hall * 1 is preparing a hard 
book against us. Murray told me it would be a “black book,” and 
yet he offered him 2000 guineas for it. Murray reprobates all 
the anti-American articles in the Quarterly and says he was 
always hostile to them, but that Gifford was an impractical man. 
I hope Hall will come out better than is expected. I expect to 
be in Boston by the middle of May, when I hope to find a letter 
from you, telling me you will write the Review. Very truly 
yours, 

Captain Basil Hall’s “Travels in North America” were published 
in 1829. 

BANCROFT TO SPARKS 

My dear Friend, Right welcome to America again. Let me 
join my congratulations with those of your friends, who see 
you visibly, on the great success, which report attributes to your 
expedition. It falls to the lot of few men to identify them- 
selves with a leading object of public curiosity and interest. 

I may say, apart from those feelings, which give me a personal 
interest in your success, I am sincerely rejoiced at your un- 
wearied efforts, and the valuable and honorable results which 
have crowned them. Your letter of a late date I was very glad 
to receive : it was to me an acceptable token of remembrance 
and regard. The books, to which you allude, have not come to 
hand, and I defer any more particular description of that mat- 


Correspondence oe Bancroft and Sparks 


135 


ter, till they are in my hands. But we have a thousand objects 
of living and burning interest about us to which we owe earnest 
attention. The topic of universities is one which I have long 
purposed discussing. If I succeed in writing on it, I shall esteem 
it a high advantage, to have a cause and an opportunity for 
conferring with you on the soundness of my notions. That (again) 
they should agree with yours, it would be alike my advantage and 
my pleasure to make use of the N. A. R. for their publication. 
But universities is a tender topic : let us keep clear of them for 
a month or two . 1 My wishes with regard to Harvard have not 
been realized ; but meantime I have learnt a lesson in philosophy, 
and am for myself a more contented man, than if I were too 
strongly interested in the success of measures, which I doubt 
not the wisdom of Boston will engender and mature. I am a 
looker-on in our literary Venice. You will never catch me elec- 
tioneering again, — till, perhaps, I may again think I can serve 
a friend. But independence , that is the great point. I thank 
God, that my neck is in no noose, and that I have no reckoning 
but with my own mind and conscience. 

And now let me wish you a vast deal of happiness. Were 
I to give that wish a more definite shape, it would be, a good 
wife. You have seen the world: the habits of a man of letters 
render him a cosmopolitan if [he] has not emphatically a home. 
Will you come and see me this Summer? You shall be hospi- 
tably entertained, read and study, walk and ride, write or sleep. 
When Boston seems a little dull, come, and we will talk over 
Paris together. By the way, I had almost forgot to say, that 
I have been getting materials together for an article on the 
Connecticut, more especially the memory of the illustrious men, 
whose names were associated with Northampton, Edwards, 
Brainard, Hawley, President Dwight, Strong, &c. I enlisted 
Judge Parker to write (under the correction of Lewis Strong) 
the account of the old Governor. He has done it temperately 

1 The recent election of a Harvard president had aroused much dis- 
cussion. Ticknor had been thrust aside, Quincy, a moderate man, had 
been elected, and the reformers were disappointed. 


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and well., Shall I proceed in this matter with reference to you? 
Proceed in it I must in some shape. Again I say try a week in 
this valley by and bye. You will find here one, who, with per- 
manent esteem, desires ever to remain very truly Your friend, 

June 4, 1829, Northampton. 

SPARKS TO BANCROFT 

Boston, June 10th, 1829. 

Dear Bancroft, I thank you sincerely for your kind welcome of 
me to America. I am glad to get home, though I have seen 
many things to admire and enjoy in the old world, and many 
things which I wish could be introduced into the new. But 
we must wait patiently, and let time do its own work. 

The book about the London University has not yet arrived. 
It is among other books, which I expect by the next packet from 
London. You are doubtless right in thinking that the subject 
had better be deferred for the present. Our college seems to 
be setting off from a new point, and perhaps it is well to let 
things remain at rest for the present. Beneficial changes are ex- 
pected, and I trust all reasonable anticipations will be realized. 
It is a great mistake, however, to call any of our institutions by 
the name of Universities. They are neither such, nor ever can 

be, without a radical change. They are mere schools, and always 

» 

must be schools, while the present system of mingling dogged 
recitations and lectures (so called) in the same course of edu- 
cation [continues]. I do not believe that a university can be 
engrafted on any of our old colleges. Something must be 
done de novo , before any success can be hoped. There are so 
many shackles on Harvard, growing out of old usages, grants of 
money for specific purposes, and a complicated machinery of 
government, that you and all the world must despair of building 
it up into a university. The lower, or school-part of this semi- 
nary is an inherent ingredient and must from the necessity of the 
case keep down the upper, or university- part. Neither money, nor 
talents, nor both combined, can remedy this defect. Now let us 


Correspondence of Bancroft and Sparks 


137 


have a university without the school-part ; let us have an estab- 
lishment where we can teach young men something about the 
operations of their own mind, the doings of the world, and the 
business of life. Europe is full of such institutions; it is time 
for one at least in America. 

I hope you will prosecute your researches about the “Con- 
necticut Valley.” I shall depend on you for such an article, 
unless you intend printing a book. In such case I must be con- 
tented with a review of the book. If you can let me have the 
matter itself. I enclose a modern Greek ode, which I shall be 
much obliged if you will amuse yourself with translating into 
English verse. Please return the original, and send the transla- 
tion by mail. It is intended to come into an article on modern 
Greek literature. It will be a good exercise for you some morn- 
ing before breakfast. You are very kind to ask me to visit you. 
There are plenty of temptations, but my occupations are so 
pressing this summer, that I fear I shall not be able to leave 
home. After three years of rambling I have a great deal to do. 
Our friend Miss Blake, with whom I became first acquainted 
in Paris, obligingly offered to take charge of this letter. Very 
truly yours, 

BANCROFT TO SPARKS 

My dear Friend, Would that you had asked of me anything 
but an impossibility. The pleasure of a letter from you would 
weigh with me greatly, but I have not written two lines of verse 
these three years, though I have courted and married during 
that period. I mean to put my Connecticut worthies in as good a 
light as possible; President Edwards, Brainard, President 
Dwight, Hawley, Pomeroy, Strong, and perhaps our lamented 
Howe and Mills. 

I hear you are enamored of Europe, and am rejoiced to find 
your observations have led you to the same inferences about 
universities which I have been forced to adopt. We may do 
something by frequent reference to general principles, and by 
those statements, which, without jarring on present interests 


138 


Smith College Studies in History 


shall yet familiarize the minds of our many with the great things 
which are accomplished in Europe. I regret sincerely, we can- 
not hope to see you here this summer. Sometimes when you are 
jaded with a reviewer's vexations and the labors of historical 
research, jump into the stage and forget care among our moun- 
tains. I enclose a little paper, which our boys get up, and which 
is decently clever for young chaps. My best wishes are yours, 
Northampton, June 29, 1829 

BANCROFT TO SPARKS 

My dear Friend, I got the 65th number of the N. A. R. last 
night. Your article on Hall is excellent, cool, friendly, and 
argumentative; but you have completely peppered him. That 
on Holmes' Annals was very much to my taste; and by the inti- 
mate acquaintance with American History shows itself to be 
yours. By the way, I suppose you introduced the Calif Omar 
simply as a figure of speech. You know there is no historic 
foundation for his remark on his burning of the Alex, library. 
I attribute Irving's Granada to Alex. Everett from intrinsic 
marks. It is excellently well done. Dwight's Germany was re- 
viewed, I think, from internal marks by Lieber. I know not, 
nor can I guess, who wrote on Canova, or on Egypt, on Hosea, 
Junius, or Long. Our friend Eliot has done well to add literary 
emulation to the elegances of life, by which he is surrounded. 

I will pursue the subject of Universities, and submit the 
MSS. to your consideration. But the Sketches of Naval Life 
I have not read. It is no object to me, to write a review as such. 
I should be grateful, could I obtain that personal leisure, which 
might enable me to enter the career of letters with some reason- 
able expectation of doing myself justice. But at present I am 
doomed to bear with the petulance, restrain the frivolity, mend 
the tempers, and improve the minds of children. I should be 
reluctant to appear in the N. A. R. without more preparation, 
than I can command before the 10th of November. And be- 
sides, I prefer the topic, Universities. 


Correspondence oe Bancroft and Sparks 


139 


Do you know Mr. Gherardi? Probably you do a little. If not, 
Wm Prescott and Mr. Folsom both know him well. I wish to se- 
cure for him a kind reception at a college in Louisiana, at which he 
will be appointed an instructor in the modern languages and per- 
haps in the Latin. He is a thorough scholar, and a well educated 
man. Can you in the shape of a letter to me, or still better, in a let- 
ter to H. H. Gird [ ?] President of the College of Louisiana in 
Jackson County, East Feliciana, as at my request, set forth 
what Prescott will assure you of, his high moral worth, and his 
unquestionable attainments and that he had once an offer of a 
place at Cambridge. If you could, and would enclose the letter 
to me, care of the Carvills, N[ew] Y[ork], you will oblige me 
very much. I shall be in N[ew] York from Friday till Sunday 
or Monday. Truly yours, 

Sunday, Oct. 4, 1829 

P. S. Why have you paid your letter? You only give me 
the trouble of looking up a ninepence to send to the Post Office 
with this. 


BANCROFT TO SPARKS 

Dear Friend, I have been on the wing, since I received your 
letter. I reached this place Monday night, and must make haste 
home today. My time is wholly engrossed till December. “The 
times are out of joint.” I cannot command my leisure for the 
January no. of the N. A. R. But before January I should hold 
communication with you on the subject of Universities. Your 
letter about Mr. Gherardi was eminently acceptable. I hold 
it as a real kindness. Truly yours, 

New York, 20th Oct., 1829 

BANCROFT TO SPARKS 

Dear Friend, Yours of Dec. 26 was received yesterday. You 
may rely on an article on the fourteenth day of February. It 


140 


Smith College: Studies in History 


will not be on universities ; I wish to live at peace with all men. 
Truly your friend, 

Northampton, 30 Dec. 1829. 

bancroet to sparks 

Northampton, Jan. 7, 1830 

Dear Friend, Joseph II of Austria is a good subject for an 
article and is out of the common line. I have Hormayr’s Aus- 
trian Plutarch, Dohm’s Denkwurdigkeiten, Coxe’s House of 
Austria, and Joseph’s own familiar letters. Can you find any- 
thing else, which would be of use? There is a French life of him 
I think by one Cast era. Perhaps Wraxall’s memoirs have some- 
thing. Whatever you will send, I will conscientiously employ. 
If you get anything you can send by Cogswell. Think you 
Joseph was a fool or a philosopher? I am doubting whether to 
treat him sublimely or sneeringly. Truly yours, 

bancroet to sparks 

Northampton, Feb. 10, 1830. 

My dear Friend, At the bar of Earle’s Coffee House you will 
find a despatch for you. If it is not to your mind, return it; 
my self love shall not be wounded. I did not think it necessary 
to wait for the little work on Joseph to which you referred; 
partly because I have reason to think, that it is not of original 
value, partly because I have much later works. The private 
letters of the emperor have been printed since the French pub- 
lication. 

I think the article I have sent you, will show why Joseph 
has been blackened and as Mr. Adams would say burnished too; 
and that the truth lies as usual with neither excess. Of ma- 
terials I have two separate lives of the emperor by Austrians. 
Then the Prussian views of him in Dohm’s masterly work; 
Joseph’s own letters; Coxe’s Austria (a heavy but valuable 
book by the way;) the lives of Kaunitz and of Laudon ; the 


Correspondence oE Bancroft and Sparks 


141 


Dutch account of the Barrier contest ; two protestant anonymous 
but learned essays on his reforms ; a work in six volumes on his 
Turkish affairs with all the manifestoes and public documents 
and treaties. Then too I have copious extracts from Caraccioli, 
and have found some good hints in the pious Schlosser’s History 
of the 18th century. I have said no ill of Joseph, which I do 
not find in his pannegyrists, and no good, which is not incon- 
testible. The best account of Kaunitz, at least the most lively 
you will find toward the end of Rulhiere’s Poland. But the 
lively writer caricatures a little. Let me hear from you and 
believe me Ever yours, 

BANCROFT TO SPARKS 

Northampton, Feb. 18, 1830. 

My dear Sir, Your recent favor has come to hand, tho’ several 
days later than its date implied. Most surely I see the pro- 
priety of the arrangement of the next number, explained by 
you. You could not doubt of my ready acquiescence. Mean- 
time I had rather subject the article to a little more considera- 
tion. Will you have the goodness to send it me by an early or 
a convenient opportunity. Very sincerely yours, 

P. S. You will find one of our Senators, O. Warner, at the 
Tremont house. I wish you all success in your negotiations as 
to the N. A. R. Above all I wish you the honor and the reward, 
rightly due you in American History. Your defense of Frank- 
lin was excellent; to every unprejudiced mind highly satisfac- 
tory. I read it with delight. 

BANCROFT TO SPARKS 

Dear Friend, I perceive the usufruct of the work on Univer- 
sities was intended for me and not the fee simple. I was in 
error. The New York friends of a University were very anx- 
ious to see the volume. Mr. Wainwright borrowed it for a 
month and has kept for a year. I will demand it of him on an 
early occasion and forward it to you. If you need the volume 


142 Smith College Studies in History 

instantly, you must write to him; otherwise I shall see him 
next week. I regret my mistake. During the winter I mean to 
prepare an essay on the subject. In the interval also I hope to 
see you. Very truly your friend, 

Northampton, 28th Sept. 1830. 

BANCROFT TO SPARKS 

Dear Friend, An absence from home prevented my receiving 
yours of the 24th before last evening. The plan which Mr. 
Griffin proposes appears to me in several respects not unlikely to 
succeed. As each production, forming a portion of the series, 
would yet be published independently of the rest, it seems to 
me, that any writer however large his prospects, would find the 
proposed work a suitable method of coming before the public. 
My own views would be swayed in some measure by two con- 
siderations : the character and qualities of the gentlemen en- 
gaged in the plan : and the chance of securing the very best 
contributors to the work. Who is Mr. Griffin? A scholar or a 
bookseller? Competent or incompetent? Young or old? With 
or without capital ? And again : do you think, that you yourself, 
our friends the Everetts and others would occasionly favor the 
public with a discussion, to be published in the series? 

The work proposed should in my view serve as a means of 
diffusing sound ideas among the mass of the community. We 
have yet to reduce to practice the principles of our government : 
they have not as yet entirely pervaded society. But apart from 
discussion, pray do me the favor to write to me all you know 
about Griffin and his plan. I am rather disposed to engage in 
the proposed scheme, provided I can see my way clear to con- 
ducting such a work with reputation. I could find the time and 
industry, that are required. Truly and affectionately yours, 

Northampton, Dec. 6, 1830. 

BANCROFT TO SPARKS 


Dear S. I have duly received your German’s productions. They 


Correspondence: of Bancroft and Sparks 


143 


are mainly designed to teach the Germans English, and not to 
teach the Yankees high Dutch. He is moreover a dirty fellow. 
He has crammed into his book all the vilest phrases, and most 
obscene words, ever uttered. Mais n’ import. If you want it 
praised, I will find a side, that can be praised with truth. It is 
an excellent dictionary, very complete. * 1 Truly yours, 

Northampton, June 9, 1831. 

1 Cf. A. H. Everett to Sparks, June 11, 1831: — “I am glad to learn 
that our friend of the Round Hill school has undertaken the review of the 
Leipsic Lexicographer. He might have taken a more promising subject, 
but nihil quod tetigit non ornavit — he shall be welcome upon any.” 

BANCROFT TO SPARKS 

City of Washington, Jan. 5, 1832 

My dear friend, I have just received your favor of Nov. 25th 
and make haste to reply, that though I have almost vowed never 
again to commit the folly of writing a review, I will, so soon as 
I cease from my wanderings and get quietly established at home, 

I will write some notice of your books for the N. A. R. or the 
A. Q. R. The difficulty is double: 1. Flugel has inserted all the 
dirty words that were ever uttered and all the obscene phrases, 
and I like not his impudent nastiness, which is carried to 
the grossest and most offensive extent, and 2. Flugel’s labors 
have been designed to help the Germans learn English; while 
in our country the counterpart alone is of common utility. How- 
ever, I will get out of the scrape in some decent way, if pos- 
sible; and if he means to print the article in Leipsig, I shall 
put in a political diatribe, of a right revolutionary character. 
I shall take my revenge for this toil in the pleasure to be derived 
in reading Gov. Morris’ life. I hope you tell his motive in the 
choice of a wife, a philosophical indifference to his own peace, 
and a philanthropic regard for the good of posterity. With 
true regard — affectionately yours, 




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